


Wild Orchid

by Beedok



Category: Magic Kaito, Ranma 1/2, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Conan can be a bit of a jerk when you look at it from Ran’s perspective, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Saotome Ranma, Kaito wants to be a gentleman but sometimes he’s a disaster, Multi, Nabiki likes gems, Other, Ran is precious, Ranma is a goofball who tries his best, Shinichi probably doesn’t realise that though, Sonoko is loving the intrigue, and a pinch of some other canon implied romances, but also a disaster at romance, early-ish for Conan, genderfluid kuroba kaito, minor Akane/Shampoo, or two, post canon for Ranma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:07:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29333541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beedok/pseuds/Beedok
Summary: Ran is feeling lonely and abandoned by Shinichi, when, one day, a handsome boy named Saotome Ranma literally sweeps her off her feet. He’s more than a bit like Shinichi, but he’s a martial artist. How can she resist?Meanwhile, Nabiki ends up catching the eye of a certain Phantom Thief who will let her see lovely jewels up close. She always did like the finer things in life.
Relationships: Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid/Tendo Nabiki, Saotome Ranma/Mouri Ran
Comments: 47
Kudos: 54





	1. Accidental Meeting

_Notes: This is ambiguously placed somewhere before Shinichi finally giving a proper confession._

**Chapter 1: Accidental Meeting**

Beika-cho was a busy place any time the sun was up. The streets were full of cars, and Ran had always felt a little nervous about Conan. He was an easily distracted boy, his head usually in the clouds with things from TV or stories Shinichi had apparently told him.

What she hadn’t expected was for her to be holding his hand when a truck barrelled through a red light in their direction. She scooped Conan up, holding him ahead of her as she tried to run to safety. She’d made it a few strides before she felt another body tackled her from behind. Whoever it was had strong arms, as firm as Makoto’s from the few times she’d felt his. The mysterious stranger spun Ran and Conan around as they flew through the air, so that Conan was safely in the middle, while the stranger’s arms also wrapped around Ran as well.

The pair slammed into the divider wall on the far side of the road, the mystery lad having taken the brunt of the impact. The feeling of safety felt reassuring to Ran for a moment, but the adrenaline wore off after a few seconds and she regained her senses enough to slip out of her saviour’s arms.

“Thank you. Are you o—” she froze, when she took in his face. Those soft blue eyes. The baby face. The messy bangs.

He looked so much like Shinichi.

With muscles though, as revealed by the sleeveless silk shirt he was wearing. She couldn’t deny that was a good look.

She shook her head, trying to focus. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. What about you two? Especially the kid?” the boy asked, Ran now noticing he had long hair tied back in a braid.

“I’m fine,” Conan said, his cheeks rather red as he was pressed against Ran.

Ran sometimes wondered if he had a condition of some sort with how often he turned flushed.

“I’m fine as well,” Ran added, before turning to see what had become of the truck.

To her confusion it was just sitting there, about half a block away, diagonal enough to cover two lanes. It came as no surprise to her that Conan was already running towards the parked vehicle when she’d turned.

“Hey! Kid! Don’t go running off like that!” the pigtailed boy shouted, running after Conan.

“He even sounds like Shinichi,” Ran said, largely a whisper to herself.

Conan managed to reach the truck, hopping up to open the cab door, before the strange Shinichi-like boy caught up to him. Ran hurried over as the other two stared for a moment.

“His eyes are open,” Conan said, as Ran reached earshot. “And he’s posed as if he’s in rigor mortis already. It must be some sort of paralyzing neurotoxin.”

The stranger stared at Conan a moment, as most strangers did when the small boy started spouting off his rather morbid knowledge.

“He’s just barely taken his foot on the pedal,” Conan added, hunching down. “He must have had enough control left to-hey!”

The strange pigtailed boy leaned over Conan, unbuckling the driver and pulling him out of the cab. Ran and Conan watched in confusion for a second, until the saw the stranger place the poisoned man on the ground and begin chest compressions.

“Isn’t he dead?” Ran asked.

“It couldn’t’ve been more than a minute since he pulled his foot off the pedal. That’s short enough that he probably ain’t dead yet,” the pigtailed boy said, before leaning forward.

“Stop!” Conan shouted.

The stranger froze looking up, confusion in his eyes.

“If he drank the poison it’s probably still on his lips. You can’t risk mouth-to-mouth,” the small boy explained. “Especially when we don’t know what we’re up against. It could be military grade.”

The stranger’s eyes looked pained for a moment, but he nodded, switching back to chest compressions. Ran watched him for a moment, the determination and compassion in his eyes.

She turned around to see Conan examining a cup of coffee in the truck’s cup holder. He then began to search around the rest of the interior, but made sure to give the cup a good deal of space. She wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but... she was fairly used to that.

The sound of sirens was a welcome one when it arrived a few moments later. Several police cars and a pair of ambulances pulled around the corner, the convoy coming to a halt around them. The familiar face of Officer Takagi was extra comforting.

“Ran-san? Are you okay? I... is Conan with you?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Ran noticed the pigtailed stranger had turned for a moment and looked up when Takagi had said her name. She didn’t have time to dwell on that right now though.

“The driver was poisoned. Conan knows more, but he needs to get to a hospital immediately,” Ran said.

Takagi nodded, turning and shouting to the paramedics. As a pair rushed over with a stretcher, Conan hopped down from the truck, explaining that he was sure it was the coffee that had been poisoned. He’d apparently found no food or other beverages in the vehicle. Another paramedic was called over to bag up the cup, in case knowing the toxin could help save the man’s life.

It was only then that Takagi properly looked at the stranger, and seemed to notice his odd familiarity. “Kudo-kun? When did you get back in town?”

The strange lad took a moment to turn away from watching the leaving ambulance, staring at Takagi in confusion. “Were you talkin’ to me?”

“You’re not Kudo? You look just like him... doesn’t he?” Takagi said, turning to Ran and Conan.

“He does?” Conan asked, turning to stare at the stranger with judgmental eyes.

“Not perfectly identical, but... close enough I confused them for a moment,” Ran replied.

“Ah, well, uh... I’m going to need statements from all of you, so I suppose that’s the best way to get your name,” Takagi said, pulling out a pen and notepad.

“Uh, sure. Saotome. Saotome Ranma,” the pigtailed boy said. “I just saw the truck outta control, about to hit that girl and the little kid with her, so I dove in to try ta get them to safety. She was movin’ pretty fast though, so might have been fine by the time I got to her.”

Ran blinked, slightly losing track of his statement as he talked. It almost felt weird to think he was cute when they had such similar names.

She shook her head again. Whether he was cute or not didn’t really matter. She had Shinichi, didn’t she?

Well, she wanted to think she did, but Shinichi was always so distant...

Luckily, the taking of statements distracted her for a bit. The paramedics gave the three of them a check over while Takagi and the other police hunted down other witnesses. Conan was find, while she had a few limited scrapes, though was annoyed to find out her shirt had a few rips in it. It felt silly to worry about with everything that had just happened, but she’d just bought the shirt.

Saotome, meanwhile, had quite a few scrapes on his arms that the paramedics washed off, applying a few bandages where he needed them.

Once they were free to go, Ran cleared her throat awkwardly. “Uh, Saotome-kun... um... are you free to go get some food or anything? I feel like that’s the least I can do to thank you for helping to save Conan and me?”

Ranma blinked, before turning to her with a smile. “I was just doin’ my duty as a martial artist, but... I’ve never been one to turn down a free meal.”

“You’re a martial artist?” Ran asked.

“Yeah. Not really the most conventional type, but I’ll be happy to tell ya about my dad’s nonsense training schemes over some burgers... or, maybe curry?”

-b-

After arriving at a nearby curry place, Ran had ended up talking to Saotome for an hour, at least. He just had so many crazy tales about the training his father had put him through. More delightfully, he’d listened happily when she bought up her own experiences with training in karate.

It was only Conan complaining that he was going to miss the show he wanted to watch that caused Ran to realise just how long they’d spent talking.

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry, I totally lost track of time,” Ran said, getting to her feet to put her and Conan’s trays away.

“Ah, it’s fine. I wasn’t doin’ anything anyhow. Just wanted to get out of the house for a bit,” Saotome replied, wearing a charmingly casual grin.

Ran felt her heart flutter, and struggled to deny how smitten she felt with this boy. He was so like Shinichi, and yet... he shared her passion for martial arts. As cute as Shinichi’s rambling about Sherlock and murder mysteries was, she could actually understand the martial arts conversation Saotome wanted to have.

“Hey, since you do martial arts, maybe you’d like to stop by the dojo I’m staying at? It’s called the Tendo Dojo, out in Furinkan-cho, Nerima-ku,” Ranma said, as he cleaned his own tray into the recycling and garbage.

“Oh, I’ll... yes. That sounds nice,” Ran said, hoping she wasn’t blushing as much as she felt like she was. Was she just uselessly weak to a specific type of boy?

“Ran-neechan! The show’s starting soon!” Conan shouted, standing impatiently by the door.

“Right, yes, sorry, Saotome-kun, but I should really head off,” Ran said, hurrying after Conan.

-b-

It was strange, when Conan finally got to the TV he seemed to channel surf absently for a while. She could only guess the stress of the day had led to him forgetting which channel the show he’d wanted to watch was on.

-b-

“Yo, Earth to Ran. You in there?” Sonoko said, her nose barely a centimetre from Ran’s own.

Ran jumped a bit, having been too spaced out to realise that their break had begun.

“I know history class gets pretty boring, but you usually hear the bell. Did _Shinichi-chan_ send you a cute text or something?” Sonoko asked, a downright obnoxious smile on her face.

“It’s... it’s not about Shinichi,” Ran muttered, taking the moment to study her desk.

“Not about Shinichi? Come on, that blush on your cheeks says ‘boy issues’ for sure... don’t tell me you’re cheating on your dear husband?” Sonoko said, crouching down to force Ran to make eye contact with her.

“I... I haven’t done anything ye-We’re not married!”

Sonoko burst into giggles at Ran’s delayed reaction, turning the poor girl’s cheeks red as tomatoes.

“Anyway, who’s the boy who’s tempted you astray?” Sonoko said, once she’d gotten her giggle fit under control.

“He helped save Conan and me from a truck yesterday. The driver got poisoned and lost control,” Ran explained, getting a mortified stare from Sonoko.

“How _do_ you end up in these situations all the time?” Sonoko asked, here eyes still wide.

“I don’t know. Weird karma? We got out safe though,” Ran said. “The boy who helped... well, he’s a martial artist, with very kind eyes.”

“Oooh. That sounds like a very good type. Tall and muscular?” Sonoko asked, shifting out of her previous look of fear.

“Not really tall. Fairly average height, but... definitely in good shape,” Ran replied. “He told me about the dojo he’s at, and invited me to come visit.”

Sonoko nodded excitedly.

“I just... I don’t know if I should. I know Shinichi and I are in a weird sort of limbo, but... isn’t it still wrong to run off to spend time with some other guy while Shinichi’s away?” Ran asked.

Sonoko stood up to her full height, crossing her arms confidently. “Shinichi keeps you in suspense and mystery all the time. Maybe letting him know you only have so much patience is a way to get him to smarten up and come home. Plus, who knows, maybe this other boy is your real _destined love_. It happens all the time in stories, the safe childhood friend seems like the best choice, until the heroine meets her real soulmate.”

After nodding happily to herself, Sonoko raised an authoritative index finger. “I know! Let’s go this Saturday. I want to meet the boy who’s distracted you.”

Ran let out a sigh. In hindsight, Sonoko wasn’t the best person to ask.

-b-

A panda. Ran and Sonoko had gotten off at the train station nearest to Furinkan-cho, and walked about five minutes towards where Glegle Maps said the Tendo Dojo would be, only to find themselves face to face with a panda strolling down the street, following a young brunette woman and carrying shopping bags for her.

“I heard Nerima was weird, but... that almost makes the talk about witches and androids not seem like total nonsense,” Sonoko muttered, as they watched the strange duo head into a shop.

“A trained animal is rather different than magic and robots,” Ran countered, but she wasn’t sure she totally believed it. The panda had seemed almost human in the way it moved.

“Well... let’s keep walking, shall we?” Sonoko said, getting an enthusiastic nod from Ran.

The rest of the walk was peaceful enough. A large dog barked at them as they walked past one house, but nothing seemed _unnatural_ about that dog, so they kept going.

Finally, after double checking Sonoko’s phone, they found the dojo, on a large lot that took up a reasonably sized residential block. After hunting around and finding no doorbell or intercom, the pair slipped through the open front gate and went up to knock on the front door.

A couple moments later a girl about their age with short dark hair opened the door. “Hello, are you... oh! You’ve got a gi! Are you here to sign up with the dojo?”

“Um, well, we’re not sure about signing up, but... Saotome Ranma said I could come have a look around? My, um, my name’s Mouri Ran by the way,” Ran said with an awkwardly polite bow.

“Oh! You’re Mouri! With the truck?” the girl said. “Did you bring the boy with you?”

“Boy? Oh! Conan! No, no. He’s spending time with his friends,” Ran explained.

The girl nodded. “Ah, right. I should introduce myself. Tendo Akane. It’s my family that owns the dojo, but Ranma’s been staying with us for a while. Speaking of Ranma, he’s out in the dojo last I saw. I’ll go take you around.”

Ran smiled and gave her thanks, though was left wondering at Sonoko’s suspicious looks towards the Tendo girl. It was hard to ask Sonoko what she was up to with Tendo in earshot, however, so Ran was left just being quietly nervous about seeing Ranma again. The walk around the house towards the dojo was short, at least, the trio arriving at the dojo’s entrance quickly enough.

Akane slid the door open, before leaning in. “Yo, Ranma. You have guests.”

Ranma’s handsome face appeared a few seconds later. He was wearing a black undershirt, hanging loosely in a way that showed a tantalising hint of his torso musculature. Adding in the way he was dabbing of sweat with a towel and Ran felt her heart racing.

She wasn’t distracted enough to miss Sonoko struggling to hold back laughter, though that only contributed to her frazzled state.

“Yo! Mouri, right?” Ranma said, a warm smile on his face. “I was startin’ to worry you wouldn’t drop by.”

“I just was busy, with school and looking after Conan. As well as my dad,” Ran said, glad to be able to complain about things so she could get her feet back on the ground.

“I guess that’s fair. Who’s your friend?” Ranma asked.

“Suzuki Sonoko, Ran’s most reliable friend,” Sonoko said with a smile.

“No gi? Just here to watch?” Ranma asked.

“You could say that, yeah,” Sonoko replied, still grinning away.

“I, um... where should I go to change?” Ran asked, not liking the eyebrow wiggling Sonoko was sending her way.

“There’s a changing area at the other end of the dojo, I’ll go show you,” Akane said.

Ran thanked her and followed the other girl. Quietly, she couldn’t help wondering if maybe she’d misread things. Usually if a boy talked to a girl as much as Ranma had talked to her, and, more importantly, _listened_ to a girl that much, it was a sign he was at least a little interested, but... well, if he was already taken then that solved her problem.

Ran nodded to herself and got changed quickly. She should really focus on trying to be friends with Saotome. That he was nice to look at was something she could enjoy even if things stayed completely platonic.

She was probably missing Shinichi more than she was genuinely interested in Ranma.

Probably.

Stepping out into the dojo proper she and Ranma decided they’d compare a few kata. Her karate was fairly orthodox, so probably wasn’t as interesting as the esoteric style he’d trained in, but... she hoped she’d honed it to the point it was a good show, at least.

Ran was a bit surprised that Akane stayed to watch her kata, and offered tips along with Ranma at the end. She’d gotten the impression that the girl was also a martial artist, but didn’t think she’d sparked that much interest. The tips Ranma and Akane wanted to give ended up conflicting a few times, which led to some arguing from the two. Ran found herself having to intervene, awkwardly taking Akane’s side as the other girl’s power focused ideas better fit her own general style.

Luckily, Ranma took it fairly well, and soon it was his turn to show off a kata.

It seemed closer to ballet or gymnastics than karate to Ran, the way he moved with every step flowing into another and how he seemed to hang in the air for an impossibly long time at points. She almost wanted to check for wires after he managed to do two complete backflips in mid-air, landing on one foot with a kick above his head.

This time her racing heart had nothing to do with his looks. She was in love with those moves, and needed to learn how to move like that.

“Would signing up with the dojo teach me that style?” Ran asked, still in awe as Ranma gave a final bow.

“Well, the classes are run by Soun... er, Akane’s dad. He does the same style as her. The dojo’s open Saturday afternoons and Monday nights though. If you wanna come by, I could give ya some private tutoring?” Ranma replied.

“Private tutoring for a girl? That sounds like a way to drive any girlfriend you might have very jealous,” Sonoko said, an annoying smile on her face.

“It does?” Ranma replied, looking utterly confused.

“Don’t worry, I’d be happy to lose him,” a voice said.

The voice seemed strangely familiar to Ran, but she couldn’t place it. For whatever reason, she did feel a bit surprised by it belong to a bob haired brunette roughly her age, or a smidge older. The cold amused smile on her reminded Ran of Ai so strongly that thoughts towards the familiarity of her voice vanished.

“What does that mean?” Sonoko asked.

“Our dads’ve got this nonsense promise that I’m supposed to marry on of the Tendo sisters,” Ranma muttered. “Neither of us like it.”

“Poor lover boy’s first choice is now batting for team lesbian,” the girl added.

Ranma turned rather red at the comment, muttering something indecipherable.

“Tutoring does-it does sound good. I’ve been feeling like I’m not making much progress in my karate lately,” Ran blurted, trying to ignore the faces Sonoko was making right now.

Ranma gave a sudden clap and a smile. “Alright, it’s settled. I’ve got my first student.”

“I’ll go sign her up then. An inexperienced sensei should lower the going rate, but... one-on-one lessons should raise it... we’ll call it even there,” Nabiki said as she led the group in towards the main house.

Ran felt herself getting a little nervous about the talk of money. Even with her dad getting more cases, and the money Conan’s parents sent... things were still a little tight. Seeing the price on the form Nabiki handed her, Ran found herself trying to mentally run through the budget. They could probably handle the fees most months, but, sometimes things got slow. Or her dad found where she was hiding the grocery money and did something dumb with it.

“I can pay,” Sonoko said, leaning over Ran’s shoulder.

“What?? No! I’m not about to mooch off of you,” Ran protested.

“Ran, you’re sweet, and I appreciate it, but... you have to remember how rich my family is. Me covering these lessons takes less of my overall resources than those times I forget my wallet and you buy me lunch,” Sonoko said, before leaning in to whispering range before Ran could protest. “Besides, I want to see how things turn out with you and Saotome. It’s not charity.”

Ran felt her cheeks grow hot, and wanted to protest that nothing was going to happen between her and Ranma, but... she also really wanted to learn the Saotome school of martial arts, and money _was_ tight.

“Fifty-fifty. I won’t accept you paying any more than that,” Ran said, still feeling guilty.

“Alright, sure,” Sonoko said, with a shrug. “How much is it, anyway?”

“You didn’t look at the price before offering to pay!?” Ran blurted.

Sonoko shrugged. “It’s my parents’ money. I don’t care.”

“You wouldn’t happen to be interested in classes yourself, would you?” Nabiki asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m not really a fighter, but thanks,” Sonoko replied.

Ran filled out the rest of the forms, glancing up to Ranma and hoping he’d not heard what Sonoko had whispered earlier. He didn’t seem like he had, as he was busy filling out forms of his own. Nabiki had mentioned something about teacher liability coverage when he’d asked for help.

“Well, things seem all in order. We’ll see you on Monday, then?” Nabiki asked. “6pm?”

Ran nodded. “I don’t know the trains out here yet, so I might be a little late, but... I will aim for six as best as I can manage.”

-b-

“You _sssoooo_ have a type, don’t you?” Sonoko said, grinning away as they walked back to the train station.

Ran could only blush in response.

“Big blue eyes. Baby face. Messy hair. Somehow even _sounds_ like Kudo. This one’s got muscles though... that’s a nice step up,” Sonoko said, nodding to herself.

“His muscles _are_ nice,” Ran muttered, before shaking her head. “I barely know him, though! It’s silly to be thinking romance already!”

Sonoko just gave a laugh as they kept walking.


	2. Stolen Heart

“You want forty-five hundred yen a month for new private karate lessons?” Kogoro blurted, despite Ran’s best efforts to be diplomatic. “What’s wrong with the ones you do at school!?”

“One: it’s not karate lessons, it’s a different style, and two: I’m stagnating at school. There’s only one or two students better than me, and they’re all third years who barely have time for the club with all the studying they have to do,” Ran replied, as she sat down at the Mouri apartment’s kitchen table. “And three: I’m not asking you, dad. I’m informing you. I do the budget, and I know we can afford it.”

“If we can afford 4500 for karate lessons then you should be letting me buy nicer smokes,” Kogoro grumbled as he pulled his bowl of soup closer.

“You’re buying the cheap cigarettes so you smoke fewer and quitting will be easier. That’s not a budgetary choice,” Ran countered, before starting her own soup, her back held straight in a show of authority.

“Is it with that Saotome guy? I don’t think I like him,” Conan muttered. “He seemed smug.”

“He’s a teenage boy, Conan. They’re pretty well all smug. You admire Shinichi, so you probably don’t notice, but he’s got an ego like you wouldn’t believe sometimes,” Ran replied, shaking her head with a slight smile.

Well, she supposed not every teenage boy was smug, but... she liked confidence. Within reasonable levels.

“Wait, you’re going to be training one on one with a boy!? No way! I’m not going to allow some slime to find excuses to get close to you!” Kogoro blurted.

Ran rolled her eyes. “Dad, it’s a family dojo. And the family that owns it is pretty big. There will be people popping in and out all the time.”

Kogoro grumbled something unintelligible, before smacking the table. “If I hear so much as a hint he’s trying to practice grappling techniques with you, I’m breaking his arm.”

“Dad!” Ran shouted. “I can think for myself! Do you really think you did _that_ bad of a job teaching me self respect?”

“I—uh... well, be careful, alright?” her father muttered.

“I _wiiilll_... now eat your yakisoba! I put a lot of effort into it,” Ran said, firmly ending the conversation.

Even if Conan kept pouting the whole meal.

-b-

Ran had ended up arriving at the Tendo home 15 minutes early in her effort to avoid being late for her first lesson. Checking the time on her phone again, she hovered for a moment or two before deciding to knock. 15 minutes wasn’t _that_ early, after all, right?

The face that opened the door was one she didn’t recognise: a short redhead about her age, wearing a red silk Chinese style shirt. The girl did seem strangely familiar, though, even if Ran couldn’t place her.

“R-Ran! You’re early,” the girl said.

“I’m sorry, I over corrected for rush hour... I’m not interrupting a family event or anything, am I?” Ran asked.

“Oh, no, no... I just—uh, Ranma’ll just be a moment. I’ll... I’ll go an’ get him!” the girl blurted, Ran noticing her speech was just a gruff and casual as Ranma’s was.

A sister, perhaps? Though Ranma had never mentioned a sister when they’d talked?

“Y-you can go and, uh, wait in the dojo,” the girl continued. “Ranma’ll be right out.”

“Oh, sure, yes,” Ran replied, before heading out around the house.

It took only a minute or two for Ranma to show up, just enough time for Ran to change into her gi. His hair seemed oddly damp, and... was he wearing a matching outfit with the girl from before?

Kazuha had said that was a couples thing once before, but with how similar the girl had been to Ranma, Ran suspected a different explanation. (The Chinese silks really suited him, either way.)

“Was that your sister?” she asked, suspecting they might be twins.

“My—uh... um, somethin’ like that?” Ranma replied, seeming rather frazzled. “It’s... complicated. I’ll... I’ll explain it another time.”

Ran felt herself growing very curious, but decided not to dig. He seemed reluctant to share, and she could handle not prying. She wasn’t a mystery obsessed type, unlike Shinichi. Or Conan.

“Anyhow... I figure we’ll just do some basic stretches and warmups first. You’ve got a pretty good basis from your karate for actual combat skills, so we’ll talk, uh... I guess philosophy after warming up?” Ranma said. “Like, the stuff that really separates the Saotome School from more... more _normal_ martial arts.”

Ran gave a quick nod.

Ranma’s warm up routine wasn’t too different from her own. Some things were in a different order. He gave leg exercises more focus than most guys did. He also proved impressively flexible, once again leading her to silently compare him to a gymnast.

It all served to build her curiosity about what the philosophy would be, in the end.

“So, uh... how much do ya know about chi?” Ranma asked, after the warm ups were finished.

“Not... not too much?” Ran said. “I’ve heard some older teachers talk about it a bit, and Makoto says he uses it somehow. Uh, Makoto is Sonoko’s boyfriend, and he’s... well, he’s pretty amazing at karate.”

Ranma nodded. “Huh, sounds like a dude I wouldn’t mind meeting... but, yeah. Everyone’s born with the same amount, generally. If you want to use it, though, ya got to grow it. The type that ya grow depends on your emotions that ya focus on. Growing up I didn’t really understand what it all meant, but pops always told me to focus on ‘up’ emotions. Light things, that’d keep ya moving. Like... happiness is a good one. Excitement. Things that make ya giddy.”

Ran felt her cheeks warm up a little at that. She’d been feeling pretty giddy about getting to see Ranma again. Both for the lessons and his looks.

“Do ya like travelling?” Ranma asked, as Ran felt herself growing a little distracted at thoughts of how cute he was. That boyish charm she’d always liked.

“Yes? I, well, normally. When it doesn’t end up involving dad’s work,” she replied.

“Good, good. Yeah, that feelin’, it’s a good one to have to keep ya mobile. I... dang, what’s the word? It starts with a ‘w’...” Ranma trailed off, mouthing a few syllables starting with w’s.

“Wanderlust?” Ran asked.

“Yeah!” Ranma replied, his eyes lighting up so adorably.

His eyes were really so bright whenever he was talking about martial arts... it reminded her of Shinichi on a case, but with no dead bodies or missing persons around to taint the feeling of how charming it was.

“Once you get growing that sort of chi, you can actually start movin’ faster. Gravity and, uh... inertia! Yeah, gravity and inertia got less pull on ya when you’re usin’ those. Then ya’ll’ve also trained your body on how to push all that energy and ya can start learning other techniques that use chi more aggressively too,” Ranma said.

“Wait... like, actual ‘chi attacks’ from an anime?” Ran asked, not sure what to make of that.

“Yeah! ‘course a lot of shows are really inaccurate with how they show how the stuff works, but... that basic idea,” Ranma said with a smile.

Ran had to blink, still not sure how to process the concept.

“Ya don’t believe me, do ya?” Ranma asked, a hurt look filling his eyes.

“I... I don’t know? You seem honest, but...”

“C’mon, I’ll show you,” Ranma said, heading outside.

Ran followed, and watched as he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck start to stand up.

“ _Mouko Takabisha_ ,” Ranma said as he held out his hands.

A yellowish glow appeared between his hands. Flickers of energy floated up from the glowing orb, before Ranma let the orb itself float up. Ran could only stare at the energy floating up and slowly dissipating. It filled her with both awe and a feeling of warmth.

“Wow,” she muttered.

“Believe me, now?” Ranma said, a slightly smug grin on his face.

“Yes. Definitely,” Ran said, nodding. “I—can you fight a ghost with chi techniques?”

Ranma blinked. “Yeah? I mean, ya don’t need anything as fancy as that. You just gotta build up the chi in your body. Then ya can just straight punch ‘em.”

“I _need_ to learn this, then,” Ran said, determination running through her.

-b-

Ran sat on the Toei Oedo line back to Beika with a lot on her mind... combined with being exhausted and sweaty. It made processing everything rather tricky. She’d seen proof of the supernatural with Ranma’s display of chi techniques. That was going to take a bit to process. Yet Ranma also seemed confident she could master that soon enough.

The idea was exciting. And she was supposed to try to hold on to that excitement, to make it happen.

Holding any emotions was a little tricky, though, as Ranma had then run her through the ringer of physical conditioning, testing her jumping, balancing, and general gymnastic abilities. Having never tried all that much parkour or qingong, she’d not been aware how different the muscles for mobility were from those for karate. She was exhausted, through and through.

In fact, Ran was so thoroughly spaced out she nearly missed her phone ringing away as she climbed up out of the Beika station. Ringing with the specific tone she’d set for Shinichi.

She fumbled for a bit before she managed to get the phone open and to her ear. “Hello?”

“I was worried I’d done something to upset you,” Shinichi’s voice said from the other end, sounding rather playful.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m just... I’ve started new martial arts lessons, and they were tiring. Really intense training,” she said, leaning against a pillar in the station.

She was too tired to walk and talk.

“Mhm, Conan told me. With the guy who helped you escape that truck, right?” Shinichi asked.

“Yep, that’s him. I don’t know why Conan doesn’t like him... but I think you’d get along well with him,” Ran replied.

“Heh... I generally trust Conan’s opinion of people,” Shinichi replied, almost sounding like he was telling a joke of some sort.

“More than mine?” Ran asked, feeling, honestly, a bit hurt.

“Ah, er... not exactly. But, you know, ‘the mouth of a babe’ and all that childishly innocent honesty. You’re too kind and polite for your own good sometimes, Ran,” Shinichi stumbled as a reply.

“Hmph... anyhow, does this call mean you’ll be back soon?” Ran asked.

“No, no... sadly the case is just getting more complicated every day. I’m sorry. But I wanted to check on you. Both generally, and with how this new karate sensei was treating you,” Shinichi replied.

“Ah, well... thanks. Things are going alright. I have an annoying assignment in English class. I miss Jodie-sensei. She was fun and gave lots of hints,” Ran said.

“Ah. I’d love to be able to help... send me some pictures of the assignment sheets, maybe?” Shinichi replied.

“That sounds nice,” Ran said. “You’re mostly calling about Saotome-kun, though, aren’t you?”

There was a bit of a pause from Shinichi’s end. “Alright, yeah. Sonoko has been sending me nonsense, and... even I can struggle to keep level headed when she’s teasing like that.”

“You don’t have to worry about him trying anything... if I’m being totally honest, I half suspect he might be... um, well... let’s just say he seems very matter of fact about girls. It might just be a side effect of living with four teenage girls, who are all quite cute, but... I mean, he was showing me a way to land that would hurt my chest less and sounded so comfortable with discussing the idea you’d almost think he _was_ a girl,” Ran said.

“Why would a landing hurt your... oh... but, wait, doesn’t a sports bra handle that?” Shinichi asked.

“To a degree, but not totally when you’re... uh,” Ran felt herself going bright red as she realised what she was telling Shinichi.

With his and Ranma’s voices being so similar, she’d almost fallen back into the same casual discussion that she’d ended up having with Ranma.

“Anyway! He’s harmless. Don’t worry!” she blurted.

She turned redder as various people in the subway station turned to her outburst. Mutterings of ‘sorry’ saw a few raised eyebrows and nods, but everyone started to look away again and went back on their way.

“Erm, yes, well... I have to get going now,” Shinichi’s voice said. “I’ll try to call you again soon.”

“That sounds nice,” Ran replied.

-b-

Kaito, disguised as a security guard, looked over the room where the _Princess’ Tears_ pearl necklace was being stored. It was a large room. The nearest ventilation duct to the display case was a good five metres away. There was a skylight, but it was too small for him to fit through with his paraglider. It was too high to fall without it, though. Descending on a rope might work, but... that lacked _pizzaz_.

He also wasn’t completely sure if he could fit through the skylight. It seemed plausible, but not guaranteed.

The banality was the bigger problem in his eyes, though.

“That girl is getting a suspiciously good look at the _Princess’ Tears_ ,” the Museum director said, as he walked up to Kaito.

“Probably just excited about the heist, sir?” Kaito offered, keeping his hat low to keep his face partially obscured. “Kid is pretty popular with the ladies.”

“Feh... she might actually be Kid. I’ve heard he’s a bit of a pervert, dressing in women’s clothes. Go scare her off, or something. Just to be safe,” the man said, before wandering off.

Kaito struggled against the desire to glare at the man. There was nothing perverted about Kaito’s love of feminine clothing. He had excellent legs and it would be a crime to hide them from the world. (And skirts were also so fun and swooshy.)

He still headed over to the girl, though. He didn’t want to be suspiciously disobedient before he’d finished learning the lay of the land.

The girl looking over the gem was fairly cute. Reasonably tall, her elegant face was framed well by a rich brown page-boy cut. There was an intelligent sparkle to her eyes, as well.

“Casing the joint, are we?” Kaito asked as he got closer.

“Just wondering how Kid is going to break in here. It seemed like a fun challenge,” she replied, in a deep and confident voice that sent a pleasant tingle down the spine. She’d make a killing at ASMR, he was certain. “The room seems too big to sneak up to the display case dramatically, but... I’m thinking he’d probably use a distraction. I’ve heard he’s got some pretty realistic balloon copies... I bet he could probably drop one of _those_ through the little skylight, and get everyone to look up.”

Kaito glanced up at the skylight along with her as she explained her thoughts. “Hmm... that does sound like something we should look at. Thank you for the tip... I’m still supposed to keep people from sticking around too long, though. Otherwise my boss will yell at me.”

“Alright, alright. I saw what I was after,” the girl replied. “I wonder how close my guess will be.”

-b-

Nabiki gasped a little when the tv showed Kid pull exactly the trick she’d predicted. While the rest of her family gave her an odd look, she found herself racking her brain, certain now that the security guard who’d talked to her had to have been Kid himself. She was trying to remember what he’d looked like. If only she’d known... well, she probably couldn’t have gotten anything out of it. There was no way he’d incriminate himself with a stranger for something like an autograph.

It was frustrating to not be able to prove something like this.

She, Akane, and Ranma had all been sent off to bed a short while later, as the live coverage of the heist ended. Nabiki’s brain was still much too excited to have any real thoughts of sleep. It was too much of a coincidence for her to have guessed perfectly. Especially when she’d told someone who’d been supposed to be a security guard. She needed proof... but how?

Nabiki shook her head and dug out her pjs. She was going to get ready to change, for a futile effort to sleep, when there was a knock on her window.

Nabiki stepped over and slowly pulled the curtain open a smidge. She jumped a little at the sight of a certain phantom thief perched on the outside windowsill. He gave her a little wave and a smile that certainly sparked her curiosity.

As such, she opened the curtains and then the window. “Hello?”

“Hello,” Kid said, all smiles. “I thought I owed you a thank you for offering such a lovely solution.”

“How—how did you find me?” she asked.

“I’m Kaitou Kid.”

Nabiki gave a nod. “Alright, fair enough.”

Kid then spun a hand around, revealing a single blue rose. Nabiki was ready to take it, when a thought occurred to her.

“You’re not a Kuno, are you?” she asked, staring at his blue rose. She had too many rose obsessed oddballs in her life.

“Ku—Kuno? I can assure you I am not a Kuno. Or a Kudo, as some have accused. Whether or not I’m some other kind of Ku may be up for debate, though,” Kid replied, grinning away.

Nabiki took the rose. “Well, thank you for the... er, the thank you.”

“It’s not just that that I’ve brought,” Kid said, twirling his fingers before the _Princess’ Tears_ appeared in his hand. “I’m not going to let you keep it, but, I thought I’d let you try it on. If you’d like.”

Nabiki felt her eyes sparkling. That necklace was worth nearly half a billion yen... she’d never held anything so expensive in her life.

“I have to put something nicer on,” she muttered, hurrying to her closet.

She spent a bit digging about, until she found what she considered her nicest formal wear. They still didn’t quite feel worthy of a 450 million yen necklace, but... it was the best she could do on short notice.

“Ooh, going all in,” Kid said, having slipped in from the window. “I admire the dedication.”

“Thank you,” Nabiki replied with a smirk.

Kid continued to stand there.

“Could I have a little privacy, please?” she asked.

“Oh! Yes. Yes, sure. Though... you can’t blame me for being an optimist,” Kid said as he headed back to the window.

“I _can_. Whether I’m creeped out or just annoyed depends on how old you are, though,” She said as she grabbed the curtain to pull it closed, keeping her eyes narrowed on him.

“That... Fine, I’m in my first year of university. It’s perfectly age appropriate,” Kid replied with a huff.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow. “Well, now I know you’re in high school. So... the flirting is cute.”

She proceeded to bop Kid on the nose with her index finger before closing the curtain. She’d spotted a bit of a blush on his cheeks, and felt a flush of pride at managing to fluster _the_ Kaitou Kid. Smiling away to herself, she changed quickly, putting on her dress gloves before pulling the necklace on.

Nabiki spun around in front of the mirror once or twice, before turning back to the window and opening the curtain. Even if the monocle and makeup she could tell he was wearing made his features a little hard to parse, she could tell he thought she looked good. She’d gotten good enough at flirting before other sources of income had drawn her attention to know when a boy was interested.

“Well... does it suit me?” she asked, giving him her most seductive look.

“I... I wouldn’t mind you modelling more jewels for me,” he said, returning to his more gentlemanly demeanor as he slipped in her room again. “Brains and beauty are a dangerously useful combo. Maybe we can work together some more as well...”

It was her turn to feel flustered as he stepped up to her. He was so close... his hand was gentle touching her neck. His face so close she could feel his soft breath. Then she heard a click; the _Princess’ Tears_ being removed. There was a smoke bomb.

He was gone. At least for now.

And she was left wanting a kiss.

-b-

Ran slid Conan’s sleeping form into bed. His small body had to put so much energy into growing that he fell asleep with ease. Even after a murder like _that_.

She decided to sit down beside him for a bit, watching him for nightmares. She certainly knew she wasn’t going to sleep any time soon. Her father also wasn’t likely to show up in the room tonight. He was down in his office seeking comfort from beer and saké. Or, if not comfort, at least forgetfulness.

Watching Conan’s peaceful form roll over, Ran decided to ruffle his hair a little before sneaking back out. He knew where her room was if he woke up in the night. She needed someone to comfort _her_ for a little bit, and didn’t want to wake Conan up with her talking.

Ran pulled out her phone and tried Shinichi’s number. She needed him right now. Her friend. Her... as the phone announced his number was currently unavailable she felt herself wondering once again if the idea she was anything more than just a friend was all from her side. Sometimes he seemed in love with her. Then, so often, he was just gone.

Tears running down her cheeks, as she honestly debated going downstairs to ask if her dad would let her partake in a little liquid amnesia, she hung up. She sat down at the kitchen table, her thumb running along the buttons of her relic of a flip phone like it was a worry stone. Sonoko wasn’t the best at handling the more morbid murders, like today’s had been. Kazuha, maybe? Her mother was probably in bed by now, surely?

“Hello?” a voice called out from the phone.

“Shinichi?” Ran asked, pulling the phone over to her.

“Oh, is this Mouri? Sorry, no, I think you pushed the wrong number,” the voice replied.

Ran realised it was Ranma on the other end and felt herself blush. She’d gotten his number a couple of lessons in, after ending up rather late one day, and _this_ accidental dial after 11pm was how she ended up calling him for the first time?

“Sorry, sorry,” Ran said.

“No worries. I was just—are you okay, Mouri-kun?” Ranma asked.

“I... there was just a rough case with my dad’s work and I was trying to decide who to call to distract me. I hit your number by mistake,” Ran replied.

“Oh... I ain’t the best with words, but, if you wanna talk, I’ll listen,” Ranma said.

“Are you sure?” Ran asked.

“It’s late enough ya got no guarantee anyone else is up, and I ain’t doin’ anything better. I’d offer to put Kasumi on, since she’s better with this stuff, but she’s a morning person so went to bed a while ago,” Ranma said. “So... yeah. I’m all ears.”

Ran felt herself smiling. He was gruff and clumsy, but... she could tell Ranma was kind despite that. “It’s a little gruesome.”

“Heh. I’ve seen Akane tryin’ to prepare fish. I’m sure I can handle it,” Ranma replied.

“That doesn’t seem like a very nice comparison for her sake,” Ran said.

“Trust me. She’s compassionate, determined, brave, and ten thousand other good things, but... she also started a fire while tryin’ to make a bowl of cereal one time,” Ranma countered, laughing to himself.

Despite herself, Ran found herself laughing a little as well. “How did she manage that?”

-b-

Over an hour passed as conversation meandered it’s way through cooking and travel and martial arts and school and the recent downpour that had hit the city and then back to martial arts.

Something about Ranma’s casual demeanor was so comforting and relaxing.


	3. Training

Nabiki was walking home from school when her phone vibrated. She pulled it out to check who’d messaged her, to find an unfamiliar number and a notification that just said ‘care to dance?’. Opening it, there were two attachments. One proved to be a ticket to the Banknote and Postage Stamp Museum in Kita-ward. The second attachment looked to be the blueprints for said museum.

She raised an eyebrow. She didn’t have any plans for the evening. So, it seemed like it was time to check over the blueprints as she took some trains out to Kita ward.

-b-

The transit options ended up being a mess of transfers, which broke up her focus a little, but was still long enough overall for Nabiki to get a decent handle of the blueprints. She supposed it was not too poor of a simulation of working under stress.

The museum itself was nice, however. Small and with a fairly basic level of decoration, but it certainly aligned with Nabiki’s interests. She got a little lost in admiring the artistry of the various bank notes from around the world (and the thought of how much they were worth all combined), and nearly forgot her proper mission.

Only nearly, though. She knew she was being tested and wasn’t about to lose.

“I thought you’d like it here, from what people at your school told me,” a male voice said.

It wasn’t Kid’s natural voice, so she wasn’t surprised to turn and see the face of a man of about twenty. He was handsome. Looked to be a model of some sort.

“Don’t trust me, yet?” Nabiki asked.

The man who was clearly Kid smiled. “Not enough to risk my mission. Now, then, let’s go get something to eat and you can tell me what your plan would be here. I’ll pay.”

Nabiki smiled and let Kid lead the way. It was a short walk to an Italian restaurant. It was small and minimalistic, but the Neapolitan-esque pizzas were quite tasty and expensive enough to make Nabiki feel like she was getting treated.

“So, how would you go about grabbing the prize stamp there?” Kid asked, showing he was quite comfortable with a fork and knife (more than she could say for her fiancé).

“How would _I_ , or how would I tell you to? We have rather different skill sets,” Nabiki replied, eating another little slice of her pizza.

“Very true, very true. How would you want me to?” Kid asked, pointing his fork back and forth for emphasis.

“Well, the simplest option would be to knock out and impersonate someone in upper management, ask to examine the stamp, and replace it with a fake,” Nabiki replied. “I’m sure you’d love something flashier, but... you can always put on a show later, making it seem like you stole the stamp without ever touching it. Especially if you have some sort of timed immolation device in the fake.”

“Oooh. It would be fun to see the police’s faces when they think they’ve won only to find the prize has vanished. Cheeky. I like it,” Kid replied, grinning away.

“Do I pass the test, then?” Nabiki asked.

She kept her tone level and calm, trying her best to hide just how excited she was. The most famous and dashing phantom thief in Japan... it was hard for her to keep her heart from racing to what had to be dangerous levels just being in his presence.

“Hmm,” Kid said, before flagging a waitress over. “A zeppole with two scoops of chocolate gelato, please... any dessert for you?”

“That depends on your answer,” Nabiki replied.

If she failed she wouldn’t mind the comfort of dessert.

“Very well, you’ve passed this round.” Kid said.

“Then I’ll just have one scoop of mango gelato, please,” Nabiki said.

The waitress nodded and headed off. How long it took for her to return, Nabiki wasn’t sure, because she was floating off to cloud nine. She was one step closer to being an official member of Kid’s team. The intrigue and adventure and mental challenge that would entail...

“It’s not as sweet as ice cream,” Kid muttered, taking another spoonful of the gelato with disappointment in his eyes.

“Pardon?” Nabiki asked, realising the waitress had brought their desserts back.

“The gelato... sugar is important. It’s brain food,” Kid muttered, grabbing his zeppole to eat instead.

Nabiki had to raise an eyebrow.

“It’s true. Just look at L from Death Note. He knew what was up for keeping your brain fed,” Kid added, his authoritative tone almost covering up the way he was using an anime character to back up his dietary choice.

“Maybe,” Nabiki said.

There were worse things than a sweet tooth.

-b-

Ran and Ranma sat a little under a metre apart, their eyes closed as they both meditated. She was training her mind’s eye in spotting others. She had some ability to sense danger on instinct, but she wasn’t on Ranma’s level yet.

She’d been barely able to sense him before he’d reached out with his own, far more controlled, chi. Now he had pulled away again, but she could feel him still. His energy was so warm and welcoming. Something about it felt... _softer_ than she’d expected, from a boy, but... so warm. It wasn’t hard for her to keep tracking that warmth as he kept pulling away.

Her ears told her he wasn’t actually moving, so she had to assume he was somehow hiding himself. She couldn’t begin to—another energy!

This one was much harsher. She was trying to figure out how to describe it when Ranma’s own signature flared up.

A crashing sound caused her to open her eyes, revealing Ranma and his father battling it out across the dojo.

“I’m givin’ lessons here, pops!” Ranma shouted, kicking his father square in the gut and causing the other man to stumble back.

“No excuse to let you guard down!” Genma roared, charging back for another assault.

The pair exchanged several bursts of strikes, Ranma generally seeming the better fighter as he pushed his father towards the door.

“She’s payin’ good money for my time! She don’t deserve to have her lesson interrupted!” Ranma bellowed, before managing to grab his father’s gi and throwing the man out of the dojo, and into the rain.

Ran let out a gasp of shock when the man transformed into a panda before her very eyes, changing as he flew out from under the protection of the covered walkway between the dojo and the main house.

Ranma turned to her with a pale expression. “Oh, uh... yeah. Uh...”

“What was that!?” Ran blurted, still staring at the panda that had been a man.

“It’s... well, it’s a curse. Pretty harmless, but... yeah. I didn’t want to scare ya off by talking about curses when you first got here, and... well, then I kinda forgot about mentioning ‘em. With all the planning the lessons and stuff,” Ranma muttered, fussing nervously with his fingers. “Sorry.”

“A curse!? Like... like from an evil ghost or something?” she asked, watching the panda now head off towards the house.

“Magic springs in China, actually,” Ranma replied.

“Magic springs... magic springs that turn people into animals,” Ran mumbled, her eyes not really focusing on anything in particular now.

The panda had gone inside.

“Well, some of ‘em turn people into animals. There’s some other curses too. Twin curse, girl curse, child curse, pious ma—”

“Wait, did you say _child_ curse?” Ran asked.

“Hm? Yeah?” Ranma replied.

That... she’d seen Conan and Shinichi in the same place, but... well, Shinichi’s mother _was_ good at disguises. It wouldn’t be impossible to fake that... right? It was the ‘turning into a child’ part that had always been hard to figure out.

“How do the curses work? They’re water activated?” she asked.

“Mhm. Cold water wakes ‘em up. Hot water turns ‘em off,” Ranma said.

Ran nodded slowly. “How hot?”

“Well, it’s magic, so... it kinda throws a temper tantrum if you try to connect a thermometre to it. But... don’t need to be scaldin’ or nothing,” Ranma explained.

Ran nodded again. It was still a lot to process. People could just... _transform_.

“Yeah, you’re definitely not in the zone for any more meditations today. We’ll do some cool down stretches and call it a day,” Ranma said.

“S-sure, yeah,” Ran replied, her mind on other things.

-b-

Conan was working away on his homework, answering the subtraction problems far too quickly for a normal six year old. Ran unplugged the kettle before it got too hot, testing a little on her hand before heading over to where he was. He wasn’t paying her any attention, muttering about how simplistic the homework was. She held the kettle out, ready to pour it on his head, when the shadow moved into his line of sight.

Conan spun around, large confused eyes staring up at her. “Ra-Ran-neechan?”

She hovered on the edge of still going through with her test.

“W-what are you doing with that kettle, Ran-neechan?” Conan asked, his small voice sounding so nervous and his eyes looking so, _so_ very confused.

There was some fear in his eyes, but not a guilty fear of someone about to get caught. No, it was the innocent fear of a child confronted with something unknown.

Suddenly she shook her head. What was she thinking!?

She’d taken baths with him before! He’d never transformed then!

“Sorry, Conan. I’m a little tired after my practice. I was going to ask if you wanted some hot chocolate, then I just kind of drifted off,” she said, a fake smile on her face.

“Uh... sure?” Conan replied, haltingly.

“Good, good. I’ll make you some. I could use some tea myself.”

-b-

She tried to phone Shinichi that night, trying to get him to reassure her. Yet, like so often happened, his phone was turned off.

-b-

Nabiki sat in the park outside Tokyo General Hospital. Kid sat beside her, wearing some glasses and a rather plain university student face. This time the test involved going over his actual plans, and so they’d met well away from the target museum after she’d checked it over.

“Your contingency plans are rather vague,” Nabiki muttered, looking over the plans again.

“Planning yourself into a corner is a real thing. You need a certain degree of improv in your back up plans,” Kid replied, his voice completely different once more.

“I suppose that makes sense,” she said, scrolling through the notes she’d made. “I think you should put the 2nd floor women’s washroom on your list of backup plans, though. The window opens to a narrow alleyway with a window ledge straight across that I think you could jump to, and the primarily male task force is less likely to think you’d go in there. Especially since it looked like the men’s washroom was lined up with a wall instead, from what I could see. They’re probably figure both were equally useless escape options.”

“Ooh. Now that _is_ good information,” Kid said with a grin.

Somehow it was still quite charming on the nerdy face he was wearing.

“Other than that, you’re more experienced than I am. The plan is better than I could manage,” Nabiki said.

“Honest realism and modesty is always respectable,” Kid replied.

“I’ve learned to be confident in my skills, but realistic about my limitations,” Nabiki said with a shrug.

Kid nodded. A few moments later he stood up and stretched.

“Good work again, Tendo. I think I’ll wear a nicer face next time, though. I like when you look at me more,” the thief said, grinning before he disappeared into a passing group of nursing students.

-b-

Ran had leapt down from a second level window before, and thought nothing of it. A third level window was a little more intimidating, but she’d trusted her ability to roll with the landing in most circumstances.

Now, though, Ranma had trained her to be able to leap _up_ to a third level window. She still needed to boost herself off the wall, unlike him, but it managed to feel like she was breaking free of gravity all the same. Leaping from building to building was almost like flying, and left her feeling so free. The smile on Ranma’s face was so infectious, combined with this feeling of movement... she’d left the turbulent emotions from yesterday’s case behind her.

She had little doubt she’d feel guilty later about forgetting the kidnapping, and the way that girl had nearly died... but, she needed to let herself be happy. At least for a little while.

Ran stumbled a little as she landed on an inclined roof, but Ranma caught her, his hands firm as he steadied her.

“Yeah, flat roofs are definitely easier, when you’re startin’,” he said, looking down at their footing. “You’re pickin’ this up good and fast, though.”

She could only smile. His hands were so nice. His... his energies were so warm and comforting. The first golden shift of the evening light was also complimenting his features so well.

Ran wasn’t so foolish to pretend she’d fallen for him more than she had for Shinichi, but... he was catching up fast. More importantly, he was _here_. Shinichi was... she didn’t know where. While Ranma was holding her. Looking into her eyes, trying to read them.

Sonoko was right. Letting good pass you by as you waited for perfect was too lonely for any heart.

Especially when good was _this_ good. Boys who could show you a world with genuine magic were hard to find.

Now she just had to confess.

“Everything okay, Mouri-kun?” Ranma asked.

“Very okay,” she replied. “Er... better than okay.”

“It’s fun, ain’t it? Jumpin’ about,” Ranma said, smiling away. “We should get headin’ back, though. It’s gettin’ late.”

“Y-yeah.”

She followed him quietly back to the Tendo home. It didn’t take too long, taking a direct path across the rooftops of the surrounding houses.

“It’s such a fast way to get around,” Ran said, feeling more than a little giddy about the energy of it all.

“Mhm, real convenient,” Ranma replied, before his eyes grew distant. “Not the best idea for a girl in a skirt though. The comments... some men are pigs.”

“Literally in some cases,” Akane said, stepping out from the dojo herself. There was an anger in her eyes that made Ran think there was a story there.

But, also, that it probably wasn’t the best to dig into.

“Heh... yeah. Sorry for remindin’ ya,” Ranma said, though he slipped behind Ran after saying it.

Considering their relative fighting abilities, she was sure she was serving more as a buffer than as protection.

Akane just rolled her eyes and thumbed behind her. “I swept up, so it’s all good for you two.”

“Ah, thanks Akane,” Ranma said, stepping forward again with a smile.

Ranma and Akane’s eyes met for a moment, and Ran felt... something between them. It reminded her, very vaguely, of her parents when they met up.

Not sure how to respond, she cleared her throat.

“Right, cool down stretches. Let’s go, Mouri-kun,” Ranma said, leading her into the dojo.

The stretches were fairly short, but covered everything they needed to. Afterwards, Ran went off to change, her mind still in the clouds. She really didn’t know how to move forward. She was a traditional girl, when it came to romance. She liked the boy doing the confession, taking the first step. It was why she’d sat just admiring Shinichi for so long.

“He won’t notice,” a soft voice said.

Ran jumped a little, turning to see the eldest of the Tendo sisters at the door. Kasumi was such a kind and soft woman, whenever Ran had interacted with her, though she was also a bit spooky with how easily she seemed able to fade into the background.

“Pardon?” Ran asked.

“Your feelings. He’s... he’s not very good at people skills in general. Uncle Genma’s parenting style was _unique_ , to say the least, and Ranma didn’t socialise much,” Kasumi explained. “Then, throw in how the girls he’d gotten tangled up with were generally lacking in subtlety with their flirtation methods and... anything short of an open confession will be missed. And he’s still beating himself up a little over how all of that ended with him alone.”

“Ah. I had kind of guessed that, but... was hoping I was wrong,” Ran said, shaking her head.

Kasumi smiled that gentle smile of hers. “I hear he needs a little help with his one project for school. Maybe that could guarantee a little alone time?”

“Oh,” Ran replied as Kasumi snuck off with a smile.

Ran did not know what to expect from her sometimes.

-b-

This was not what Ran had wanted. She’d gotten talking about schoolwork with Ranma last time they’d had their lessons, and he’d talked about having some issues with history lessons. So, she’d offered to help him with a library meet up. Only... Conan had decided he needed to come along too, insisting he’d finished all the books he’d borrowed. And that the library in Shinjuku where she was meeting Ranma might have different and interesting books.

She also swore she’d seen Sonoko at one point, while she was waiting, but was willing to chalk that up to paranoia. She’d not told Sonoko she was doing this, after all. She’d only made the offer the day before.

She shook the paranoia out of her head and perked up as she saw Ranma step through the doors.

“Hey, sorry I’m late. Pops decided to toss a last minute sparring session on me. Took a bit to shake him,” he said as he approached. “Oh! Hey, it’s the kid. How are ya?”

Ran felt relieved at the joy Ranma showed about seeing Conan, only to have that relief crumble when she saw how Conan was glaring back.

“I’m fine. I’m here to read,” Conan grumbled.

“Heh, well, let’s go find an empty desk somewhere. Conan, you can go hunt for books afterwards, but check in on us every half an hour or so. How does that sound?” Ran asked.

Conan mumbled something vaguely cooperative and the trio set off. On a normal day Ran would probably reprimand Conan for his behaviour, but her mind was busy thinking about confessions. It took most of her remaining concentration to keep herself from tripping while looking for an empty table.

“How’s, uh, how’s that one?” Ranma said, gesturing to a table near a window.

“Oh, yeah. That’s good,” Ran blurted.

She hoped she wasn’t blushing too much as they headed over to the table. She awkwardly pulled her textbooks out, still trying to figure out when it was best to confess. Should she just get it over with? Or was that rude to do when it could make the study session so awkward? If it was too awkward they could just cancel, but... that would be mean when she’d offered Ranma the help.

“Is there something on my face?” Ranma asked.

Ran blinked, looking up in confusion. She’d been too flustered to make eye contact. why was Ranma asking— wait, no, he was asking Conan, who was still here, rather than have run off to hunt for books.

“No, no... I, just—are you gay?” Conan asked.

Ran tried not to splutter too loudly. “Conan!?”

“Would you have a problem if I was, kid?” Ranma asked, staring down at Conan.

If she hadn’t known about Akane, Ran would have taken that as a confirmation, but knowing about how close he was with her, it was possible he was upset for Akane’s sake.

Conan paled at Ranma’s glare. “Oh, no... I’d, uh, I’d be happier if you were.”

Ran let out a tired sigh as she realised where he was going with this. He was very single minded sometimes. Just like Shinichi, who he remained so certain was the best option for her.

“Oh, uh... well, if you’ve got a crush, I’m sorry to tell ya, but you’re a bit too young for me,” Ranma said, reaching over to ruffle the small boy’s hair.

“What? No... I... that isn’t...” Conan stumbled, unable to form an actual reply for a bit. “It was just that Ran-neechan said you talk like a girl sometimes, so I thought that—”

“She does?” Ranma said, turning to Ran with a slightly worried look. “You really think I do?”

Ran was left blinking again, not sure what was going on. _Was_ he gay? She’d spent some time with Akane and Shan Pu, and gotten along fairly well... did he worry that she’d respond differently to a guy being gay than a girl?

He _did_ seem to be avoiding the question, though.

“Um, I just chalked it up to your living with 4 teenaged girls, and then your mother?” Ran offered.

“Oh, heh... yeah, that makes sense,” Ranma muttered, blushing a little.

He looked so very cute as he blushed, yet the conversation had left her deeply confused.

An awkward silence descended over the group for a bit, before Ranma at last cleared his throat.

“A-anyway, let’s get to work on this history assignment, eh?” he offered.

“Uh, yeah! That sounds good,” Ran replied, laughing nervously, unsure if she should abandon her plans or not.

Conan narrowed his eyes, looking between the two of them, before looking like he had an idea. “I’ll go look for the mystery section then. Be back in half an hour!”

With that, he ran off.

Ran watched him a moment before turning back to Ranma and asking about his assignment. It went fairly well, over all. She wasn’t top of her class, or anything, but she did well enough overall. Certainly better than Ranma, who seemed to still be quite unsure about some surprisingly well known facts. That led to a confession about his spotty education before High School due to his nomadic childhood.

The question on her mind kept burning, though. After about 20 minutes of it, she couldn’t contain her question any longer. The secondary question about his sexuality would no doubt be answered by the first question on her mind, anyhow.

“Um, Ranma,” she all but whispered.

“Yeah?” Ranma asked, looking up from his notes.

“I was wondering if you... um... I wanted to say that I—“

A blood curdling shriek cut across the library.

She closed her eyes and let out a tired sigh. Why did this always happen? Opening her eyes, she saw Ranma looking nervous, glancing in the direction of the scream.

“Should, uh... should we go check that Conan is okay?” Ranma asked, glancing back to her.

“Oh. Y-yeah. That makes sense. He’s probably run off to the source of the scream,” Ran replied, so used to all the men in her life being drawn to murders directly.

Ranma gave a slow and barely perceptible nod. “He’s a weird kid, ain’t he?”

“Very,” Ran replied.


	4. Confessions

“So, what’s the rundown?” Megure asked as he walked up to the group.

“The victim, 43 year old stock broker Kurotori Satoshi, was found in this aisle of the library, having received a blow to the back of his head. He’s still alive, but in hospital, and the doctors suspect the location of the blow means he’s probably not going to have clear memories of what happened,” Takagi explained. “Luckily, the library is rather quiet, so we’ve only got 4 suspects without alibis... well, five with Conan, but... _obviously_ we wouldn’t count him.”

Ran noticed Takagi glancing down at the small boy and looking nervous before shaking his head. “Well, uh, they’re 37 year old Takahashi Akito, a mathematician; 78 year old retiree Shinzou Himari; 41 year old Sasaki Otohiko, currently unemployed, recently released from prison; and 19 year old university student Inoue Tamiko. Shinzou-san admits to living in the same apartment building as the victim, but the others are so far insisting that they do not know the victim.”

Takagi’s wording of the last part drew protests from the suspects, though Ran only really half paid attention. She was busy thinking about her garbage luck. Who else had murders happen just before they could confess their crushes?

Well, apart from Heiji.

At least the paramedics had been reasonably certain the victim was going to pull through, so she felt less guilty about her annoyance with the situation. She still suspected that thinking too much about how a murder inconvenienced you was a one way ticket to getting haunted by the victim’s bitterness.

Ranma she couldn’t read, though. He was just sitting quietly to the side, after having helped Takagi round up the suspects.

“Hey, you owed him twice as much as I did!” one of the suspects shouted. Takahashi, she believed.

“I’d only just taken the loan out! I still had plenty a’ time to pay it back!” the gruff and muscular looking Sasaki replied, raising an agree fist as the skinnier man.

The raised arm revealed the beginnings of rather extensive arm tattoos as his sleeve slipped down.

“What _were_ you in prison for again, Sasaki-san?” Megure asked.

“I... it don’t matter!” Sasaki blurted.

“Hm... Ah! The records say a few cases of assault and resisting arrest,” Takagi said, looking at his phone.

“And now a man you owed money to has ended up in the hospital,” Megure added, nodding to himself.

Sasaki paled, looking around in a panic. “Nuh-uh. Not again. This ain’t happenin’ again...”

The gruff man dashed to one side, tossing a book cart across the aisle as he ran. Ran was ready to run after him when Ranma took off like a shot, leaping the book cart almost as if it wasn’t there. The large man was rather nimble, though, and managed to swerve to avoid Ranma. The pair were out of sight a moment later, after rounding a corner.

“Alelele,” Conan said, having apparently not paid any attention to the escape attempt.

Instead the small boy lifted up a book he’d been looking at. “This book was right beside the victim, and was shelved wrong—”

“Mistakes happen, deary,” the old woman, Shinzou, said, cutting him off.

“Not at a library. My teacher was telling us all about library organisation rules and how librarians spend years learning them,” Conan replied. “But, the really funny thing is that this on page has marks like something was glued to it, see!”

“I suppose that is odd,” Takagi said, bending down to take a closer look.

“Do we have time to worry about what that kid is finding when the prime suspect is on the run!?” Takahashi asked.

Inoue gave a shrug. “The police are watching the exits. What can we do but wait for him to get dragged back?”

Ignoring them, Conan continued his explanation to Takagi. “If you look here, in the bottom left corner of the other page, there’s a little drop of red. It looks like blood to me.”

“Hmm... it might be. Should we have forensics take a look, sir?” Takagi asked, turning to Megure.

“I don’t really know why there’d be blood in there, but I suppose we should look,” Megure muttered.

“The books are old. It’s probably ketchup or something. Isn’t that a waste of police resources?” Takahashi asked. “Are our tax dollars really going towards keeping some morbid five year old entertained?”

“I’m six!” Conan protested.

“I thought you were seven?” Takagi asked.

“Oh.. yeah, right. Sorry, still getting used to it,” Conan replied.

Ran sat down on a nearby table. How a book was involved in any of this she couldn’t guess. Still, half the time the truth behind murders didn’t even seem physically possible to her, so she’d learn to just accept being confused.

“Yo! I’ve got the runaway!” a female voice called out.

Turning, the group were greeted with the sight of the tiny redhead Ran had seen once or twice at the Tendo home carrying the squirming form of the tall and bulky Sasaki over one shoulder, and moving like he weighed no more than a book bag.

Both of them were also sopping wet.

“Sorry, had to avoid the narrow aisles and take the long way back, since tattoos here went and fell in the fountain near the front,” the redhead said.

“And _who_ are you?” Megure asked.

“She’s Ranma’s sister,” Ran explained, hopping back to her feet.

“Was she here before?” Megure asked Takagi.

Takagi shook his head. “I didn’t see her, but... we started letting people into the library as long as they accepted they couldn’t leave until the investigation was resolved. Since it’s a public place and we _had_ gathered all the suspects.”

“Mhm, alright,” Megure muttered.

“I can’t do it again! I’m innocent! I was innocent last time and I’m innocent this time!” Sasaki protested as the redhead slumped him against a table. “I’m not going back to prison...”

He stayed in place, but began to sob. Ran found herself feeling a bit sorry for him, somehow getting the feeling he was telling the truth.

“So, ya gonna cuff him, or?” the Saotome girl asked Takagi.

“We’re still a bit sparse on details,” Takagi replied.

“Those are fancy gloves, granny,” Conan said, drawing all eyes to his small form, and revealing that the boy was peeking into the old woman’s purse.

She yelped and pulled her purse away from him. “They’re for handling old books. You don’t want to get sweat on them.”

Conan nodded, before narrowing his eyes. “Mhm, it’s important to keep fingerprints off of books, _isn’t_ it?”

“Y-yes?” the old woman replied.

“What else is in your purse? It must be all kinds of cool things!” Conan asked, returning to his innocent and childish tone.

“Okay, what’s up with that?” the Saotome girl whispered to Ran. “That’s not normal kid behaviour.”

“I don’t really know... Conan is strange sometimes,” Ran whispered back.

“I’ve thought about calling an exorcist before, but he _does_ help us catch murderers,” Takagi added in his own whisper.

Ran turned to Takagi, her mouth opened a little.

“Not—not seriously or anything,” the tall man replied stepping back and scratching his neck nervously.

Ran still stared at him for a moment or two, before Conan started upping his insistence that the old woman show him what was inside her purse. This eventually sparked Megure and Takagi’s interest as well, and then the two more coherent suspects started demanding she be searched too, even if she was a frail old woman.

They found the chopped up remains of a photograph of a dog in the woman’s purse, that, when put together, would have fit the misplaced book perfectly. Questioning led to her admitting it was her dog, that the victim had hit with his car. Apparently she’d be working to convince the victim that he was haunted by the spirit of her dog as vengeance, and she’d merely planned to frighten him by placing the picture in the book, not expecting him to stumble backwards and nearly kill himself on a nearby bookshelf. She’d apparently panicked and tried to cover up her involvement.

Ran found herself wondering at the absurdity of it all for a few moments, before she leaned back on a table and let out a sigh.

“He’s gone. It’s just my luck,” she muttered, looking around one last time.

“Who’s gone?” the Saotome girl asked.

“Ranma. I had finally psyched myself up to confess my feelings, and now he’s gone,” Ran said, sighing again.

“W-wait, what... you... you like... you like me? Like, like like me?” the redhead asked.

Ran blinked and turned to the girl. “You?”

“Yeah m- _right_. Right. Uh... did you notice my clothes and how I’m sopping wet?” the redhead asked.

“Your—” Ran froze. That was the exact same outfit as Ranma again. Wet. Water. The curses.

Ranma had said there was a girl curse.

Ran felt her cheeks practically burst into flames, they went so hot. She briefly had to wonder if death from embarrassment was possible or not.

“You’re... you’re...” she muttered, trying to form a sentence.

“I was going to tell today,” Ranma replied, cheeks red as well. “I... I shoulda said somethin’ when you found out about pops, but thought that might be too much for one day. An’ then... girls keep thinking I’m a pervert just ‘cause I’ve got this curse and you’re my first student and... sorry.”

“Can I... can I see you transform?” Ran whispered.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Sure,” Ranma said, grabbing her hand (which sent a jolt of heat up her arm) and leading her off to the washrooms.

She got a little nervous when they entered the men’s washroom, but it was empty (the floor where the murder had happened being more or less abandoned). She stood to one side as Ranma turned on the hot water.

One splash later and the face she recognised as Ranma was back, though he wasn’t quite making eye contact. “So, yeah. It’s me...”

“It’s you,” Ran replied, still processing it.

They both stood quietly in the bathroom, Ran unsure what to do with this information. She... she liked Ranma the boy, but learning that Ranma the girl was a thing wasn’t something she’d been planning for.

“If you wanna cancel the lessons, I’d understand,” Ranma said softly.

Ran stared up at his eyes, which looked so fragile right now. “Why would I cancel the lessons?”

“Well... because I... I dunno. I’ve never understood it, but lots of girls end up whisperin’ stuff about me bein’ a pervert because of my condition,” Ranma replied. “Well, and I guess because I forget that I need different standards of modesty when I’m in girl mode. So they think I _like_ showin’ off or somethin’.”

Ran nodded along, even though she didn’t totally follow. “I definitely don’t think you’re a pervert. Not from how you’ve acted around me. But... well, I know I have a crush on your boy side, but I don’t know what your girl side means for my feelings. Or what it should mean.”

Ranma blushed again. He’d clearly thought any talk of crushes was firmly off the table. “Well, no rush. Ya can think about it. I... I’m kind of a mess at romance, though. Just a warning.”

Ran was ready to try to reassure him, pointing out that she had zero experience herself, when Conan’s voice called out her name. Blushing at how she’d forgotten about the boy at a crime scene, she hurried out the door. Conan gave her the strangest look, especially when Ranma followed her out. She was about to ask him why, when she remembered they’d both been in the men’s washroom together.

Well, nothing had happened, so she didn’t need to defend herself. Instead she turned to Ranma.

“Sorry about our study session ending like this.”

“Eh... I’ve had worse ones,” he replied with a shrug.

-b-

Ran had phoned Sonoko as soon as she’d gotten home, wanting a second opinion. Sitting on her bed and listening to Sonoko’s questions, Ran began to wonder if she’d maybe chosen rather the wrong person to ask. Sonoko was full of ideas of what they could do, but... Ran wasn’t sure how she felt about any of them.

“I think you just want to go shopping,” Ran said.

“Well, _true_ , but you also want to see how much of a girl he is, right? What’s a better test than a shopping trip to Harajuku?” Sonoko replied. “We’ll see how long he can last.”

“I don’t want to make him uncomfortable. It is a curse, after all,” Ran protested, flopping back on her bed.

“It’s a little punishment for him hiding it from you for so long,” Sonoko replied.

“He seems like he had a good reason for it,” Ran countered.

“Well, then: you can reward him a little by trying on cute outfits when we go shopping.”

“Sonoko!” Ran protested.

“It’s another test to see how much of a boy he still is, obviously,” Sonoko replied, before laughing.

“I... I could use some new clothes, though. I guess I’ll see if he agrees,” Ran mumbled.

-b-

Ranma had been in a mood when he’d gotten home. Nabiki had been curious as to why, but knew any interest of any sort in his well being would be seen as a sign to be stuffed in a wedding dress by her father. So she’d waited to see if Kasumi got anything out of him.

When that failed she decided to try eavesdropping on him when he was alone in his room, just in case he muttered anything to himself. She hit the jackpot as she heard him talking on the phone.

“I ain’t got any intentions on her.”

“She confessed to me. I wasn’t doin’ nothin’.”

Nabiki tried to move closer to where Ranma was sitting, hoping to get a hint of what the voice on the other end was saying. His phone was set pretty loud, due to cheap sound quality.

“She’s taken, pal. You need to back off, got it?”

“And I told ya, she’s the one makin’ the move, not me. I ain’t done nothin’ besides be good lookin’. Well, that and answer the phone when she calls me after seeing a dead body and she needs a shoulder to cry on.”

“I... there’s a reason I can’t always be there when she needs me!”

“Well, listen: I’m not trying to make things romantic, and I told her something today that might make me permanently ‘just a friend’, so stop worrying so much. And stop pushing people away from her when she’s obviously already lonely.”

“I’m not pushing _people_ away from her. Just guys with ulterior motives.”

“Well, then, ya got no reason to push me away.”

“I’ll be watching you all the same.”

“How can you watch me when ya can’t even pick up a phone for the girl you’re claiming is ‘yours’?”

There was a bit of silence, and Nabiki could only assume whoever had called Ranma had hung up. She returned to her room before she had any further risk of getting caught, and went to her record book. She made sure to put down the basics of the conversation and the implication that _someone_ had asked Ranma out. Presumably it was the new girl around who kept blushing, but Nabiki knew better to assume.

She was also left thinking Ranma needed a better phone, because she would have thought it was _his_ voice on the other end of the call, if she’d not known better. And she was pretty good with differentiating voices (trained by years of eavesdropping experience).

*Knock knock*

Nabiki jumped, turning to the sound at her window. Sliding the curtain open she was greeted by Kaitou Kid on her window sill.

“Well, this is a surprise. Good evening,” she said as she opened the window.

“You’re engaged?” Kid said.

“Oh, you heard?” Nabiki replied.

“It’s not very polite to play with a phantom thief’s heart while you’re set to be married,” Kid said, wagging a finger at her.

“It’s an arranged marriage and it’s _not_ going to happen. Don’t worry,” Nabiki informed him. “He’s not my type and I’m not his.”

Kid raised an eyebrow and hopped in the room. He walked (with grace) over to her desk chair and flopped (with rather less grace) into the chair. “Do tell. I’m curious.”

“I don’t usually give information for free,” Nabiki replied, sitting on her bed.

With a flourish, Kaito produced a ring. She recognised it as the one he’d stolen last week. “I’ll let you try on this cute little thing if you tell me.”

“You haven’t returned it yet!?” Nabiki blurted.

“It’s been cloudy. I haven’t been able to check it yet,” Kid replied, holding the ring up absently towards the ceiling light. “So, tell me about the guy I’m so much better than and I’ll let you wear it.”

Nabiki scrunched her face up for a moment, not liking the way she was being played so easily. But the ring was quite nice, and she didn’t mind venting about Ranma all that much.

“Well, to start, he’s a jock, through and through. I can’t complain about the resulting muscles, but he’ll talk my ear off about martial arts. I can only handle so many discussions about proper stances before I want to strangle him,” she explained. “He’s also, well, not quite feral, but... unrefined. Growing up on the road he barely has any manners or knowledge about arts, history, and music. He also is constantly plotting things, but is terrible at communication, resulting in all sorts of messes. Especially since his plans are usually terrible.”

“Is that everything?” Kid asked.

Nabiki pondered it for a moment. “Yeah, more or less. Uncultured jock who gets into more trouble than he’s worth... it’s a shame, because he’s _almost_ cute enough to be worth it.”

“Well, time to hold up my end of the bargain... did you want to get changed before you wear the ring? And, if so, should I pop out, or shall I put a blindfold on?” Kid asked.

“I don’t trust a magician’s blindfold,” Nabiki replied with a smirk that got a ‘guilty as charged’ grin from Kid. “But it’s just a ring. I can just put the gloves on... but you did remind me of another issue with Ranma: he’s such a late bloomer he barely seems interested in girls. More like a child with a crush towards girls that interest him than an actual teenager.”

Kid raised an eyebrow as Nabiki dug her dress gloves out.

“I’m not sure if I was complimented or called a pervert just now,” he said as he handed over the ring.

“I’m still not quite sure where you lie myself,” Nabiki replied, before slipping the ring on. “It’s a nice rock, I will say. Sapphire, right?”

“Mhm. Been reading the books I gave you?” Kid asked.

“Making my way through them. I like the way gems look, but... I’ve never been the most focused on the specifics of mineralogy,” Nabiki replied, modelling the ring a little.

“Speaking of liking how things look,” Kid stood up, walking over to her and interlocked his fingers with hers, looking down into her eyes, “let’s have a day that’s just a day. This Sunday. I’ll happily buy you some clothes if you model them for me.”

“Will I be seeing your real face?” Nabiki asked, annoyed how it was somehow so hard to make out his features right now.

“I still have an ally or two to convince to trust you, but... maybe,” Kid replied, before stepping back and gently pulling her hand forward to kiss it. “I’ll give you details closer to the day off.”

“No lingerie until we’re actually dating and I’ve seen your real face,” Nabiki replied.

Kid blushed. “Maybe I should be wondering if _you’re_ the pervert here.”

“Maybe,” Nabiki laughed.

With that, Kid slipped out the window and into the night.


	5. Harajuku

Nabiki found herself surprised to be leaving to the train station at the same time as Ranma that Sunday, both of them even boarding the train in the same direction. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what he was up to, though. He had a familiar look in his eyes, like he was planning vengeance.

It kind of reminded her of the first time they’d been engaged. Back when she’d been able to worm out of things by returning him to Akane. Before the whole mess with Ryoga that had somehow ended with Shan Pu and Akane stuck on an island together and realising they were both quite firmly lesbians. And leaving her with a broken Ranma moping about being alone.

Deep down, she was pretty sure that was the worst part of the engagement. Ranma hadn’t chosen her, or wanted her. His other flaws she could probably have worked with, if he actually cooperated with her, but, instead, he just stared wistfully at Akane all the time.

She silently wished Mouri good luck as she slipped off the train at Yoyogi Station.

-b-

Ran hissed as she glanced at the time. She was running at least five minutes behind... where was that hair clip? It had just been on the dresser a minute ago, hadn’t it?

Knocking at the door distracted her. Was that Ranma? Was he early?

She raced out into the main room, only to pale a little as she found her father opening the door.

“Oh, look who decided to show up,” her father said. “What’s with the hair? Some kind of disguise?”

“Pardon? Have we met?” Ranma asked. “You _do_ seem vaguely familiar...”

“Cut the sass, boy-detective,” Kogoro countered.

“What?” Ranma replied.

“Dad!” Ran said, sliding in and elbowing her father out of the way. “Stop being so rude to Saotome-kun.”

“Sao-wait!? This is your new martial arts tutor? He looks just like that Kudo brat!” Kogoro shouted.

“Do I really look that much like him?” Ranma asked.

“Dad hasn’t seen Shinichi up close in months. You look sort of like him, but not identical or anything,” Ran replied, her smile a little strained.

It was mostly hair and eye colour that separated them (Ranma being darker on both fronts), but... there _were_ some other differences.

“I’m a detective, you know. One of the best in the country, if not the best. I can remember a face fine, and he could pass for Kudo’s twin with a haircut,” Kogoro protested.

Ran leaned in to whisper in Ranma’s ear. “He’s just trying to cover for his mistake. Ignore him... anyhow, I just need to find my hair clip and add a little makeup. I won’t be 10 minutes. So, dad, behave yourself.”

“Is this a date?” her father asked as she ran towards her bedroom.

“No! No. Sonoko will be there too. We’re just hanging out,” she called back, finally finding the hair clip on her night stand.

She hurried off to the bathroom next, and hoped for the best. The living room was out of earshot now, so she wouldn’t know what nonsense her father got talking about until after she finished with her lipstick. Luckily that didn’t take too long, and she was just about to head back into the living room when she felt the apartment shake, accompanied by a loud thump from the living room.

Rushing out, she found Ranma lying on his back, his arm being held by her father, who had clearly just done his trademark over the shoulder throw.

“What? I didn’t think you two would actually _physically_ fight!?” she exclaimed, raising and waving her hands in exasperation.

The pair turned to her with confusion.

“We weren’t fightin’?” Ranma said.

“Mhm. I was showing him a technique,” Kogoro added, a smile on his face as he stood up. “He was telling me how his style does barely any grappling, and then I got telling him about my judo experience, and... well, there’s a decent bit of open space here, so I thought I’d show him a move.”

“Didn’t mean ta worry ya, sorry Mouri-chan,” Ranma said.

Ran let out a breath of relief. That was actually going better than she’d expected.

Asking Agasa to watch Conan really had helped to defuse things.

“I’m glad you two are getting along, but the apartment really isn’t built for judo practice. Also, Ranma-kun, we do have to get going. Sonoko is probably waiting for us.”

“Oh, uh, right. Yeah, sorry. I’d like to hear about some of your detective work another time though, Sleeping Kogoro-san,” Ranma said with a wave as they headed out.

It was only once they were down the stairs and walking down the sidewalk that Ran turned to Ranma with a raised eyebrow.

“What was all that about? You seemed like you were buttering him up.”

Ranma shrugged. “I was. I wanted ta make a good first impression. Was I layin’ it on too thick? I’m used to the dads of girls I’m spendin’ time with either trying to talk me into marrying their daughter, sometimes at sword point, or just... being total wingnuts. So... I don’t really know normal polite first impressions.”

“Oh... well, I’m not sure my dad would notice anyone laying it on too thick,” Ran muttered, shaking her head.

She supposed that it was all reasonable, overall. She’d been nervous about what Ranma’s parents thought of her, after all. At least before shed given up on understanding his father when she’d found out he was a panda half the time.

-b-

Nabiki looked around the subway station, hunting for any guys who seemed to be paying her extra attention. While she was dressed nicely for the day, this was Harajuku. She couldn’t compete with the rather extravagant outfits on some of those passing by, and, thus, blended into the background. So, she felt sure that any guy who did seem to be watching her had to be Kid.

She was beginning to wonder if she was getting stood when a bit of blue caught the corner of her eye. Turning, she nearly jumped out of her skin at how close the girl with the blue rose was.

“You need to pay more attention to your surroundings before I bring you on any heists, Tendo-chan,” the girl said.

Nabiki took a second for everything to slot into place. It was a well known fact that Kid could disguise as almost anyone, and Kid’s first proper encounter with the so called ‘Kid Killer’ Edogawa Conan had seen Kid famously dress as a girl, but... Nabiki still hadn’t be expecting it for something she’d expected would be a date.

“That’s not your real face... is it?” Nabiki asked as she accepted the blue rose.

“No, no. My assistant got all skittish about how your father is in politics and worried you’re up to some sort of sting operation,” Kid replied, waving a hand dismissively and maintaining a perfectly feminine voice. “I disagree, but he’s the nervous type so I need to calm his nerves a little.”

“Then why _are_ you dressed as a girl?” Nabiki asked, ignoring the weird feelings in her gut. She was quite comfortable in her bisexuality, but... this still felt strangely _Ranma_ -y to her.

“Well, I’m taking you shopping in a popular destination. I figured there were good odds of us running into someone you knew,” Kid replied with a shrug. “So this seemed safer. Didn’t want to start rumours or get your in trouble with your father.”

“I’ve scammed more than a few guys’ wallets empty in my day, so it wouldn’t surprise anyone who knew me to see me with another,” Nabiki replied, before taking another look at Kid’s over all look.

It wasn’t bad. The outfit was stylish while also managing to flatter his figure very well, and his legs looked very nice in that skirt. The padding that he was wearing made for a quite pleasing figure, as well.

“You’re pretty nice on the eyes like this, though,” Nabiki said, grinning as she poked some of the padding around his bottom. Only the squirm of surprise left her realising that was not, in fact, padding. “Oh _my_. Someone does squats.”

“Mostly running, actually. Lots and lots of running. Also climbing up stairs and ladders and other things,” Kid replied. “Generally away from the police.”

Nabiki gave a few small nods. “Yeah, that would do it...”

“All the climbing has been pretty good on my arms, too. Maybe not as good as martial arts, but nothing to sneeze at,” Kid said, lifting an arm to flex.

Nabiki found herself ooh-ing. She’d always liked muscle on girls... right, Kid was just dressed as a girl. Still, the effect was much the same for her eyes.

Maybe she’d try to talk Kid into modelling a little for her on this shopping expedition.

-b-

Ran spotted Sonoko and waved to her as she and Ranma got off their bus. The sidewalks around Harajuku were quite spacious, making anywhere along the street fine as a meet up point despite the throngs of people. Sonoko was polite with her greetings, but it was obvious what she had on her mind.

“So, can I see the magic, then?” she asked, looking Ranma over.

The pigtailed boy shrugged and produced a water bottle. “Sure, yeah.”

A moment later Ranma was a good 15cm shorter, with much redder hair, and a figure that left little question about this forms femininity.

“Dang,” Sonoko said. “That’s quite the change... you’re tiny now!”

“Yeah. It was confusing at first, but I’m used to it these days,” Ranma replied.

“Well, it should be fun finding you outfits. That bright red hair should play with a lot of colours,” Sonoko said, grinning away.

“Honestly, wish I kept my black hair in girl mode. Black goes with everything. Red like this clashes with some colours,” Ranma muttered.

“Where did you get this curse, again?” Sonoko asked.

“Jusenkyo. It’s a martial arts training ground in Qinghao,” Ranma explained.

“Martial arts training ground?” Sonoko repeated as her eyes grew distant for a moment.

Ran let out a sigh. “You’re not getting Kyoguku-kun cursed.”

“I know. I was still thinking it would be fun to play dress up with him... only I have to admit I’m not sure I can picture him as a girl. He’s just so... so big, you know?” Sonoko replied. “I guess he’d be, like, a total Amazon?”

“Amazons can be cute,” Ranma offered, before glancing at Ran and then blushing a little.

She wondered what that might mean, before their current relative heights clicked in her head. She was towering over the redhead right now, unlike the usual situation where he had a couple centimetres on her. And, well, she knew some guys complained about her muscle mass.

“Well, let’s get going then, shall we?” Sonoko announced, apparently happy to change subjects.

“Uh, before we get goin’ anywhere... can I, uh... can I put on a... a... er, a _sprsbr_?” Ranma mumbled.

“A what?” Sonoko asked.

Ranma’s cheeks went a deep crimson. “A sports bra. I... I ain’t an underwear obsessed weirdo or nothin’, but... well, someone talked me into wearin’ one and I realised they were comfortable and nice to wear and not all frilly and meant to make ya look sexy and...”

Ran placed a hand on Ranma’s shoulder, causing the small redhead to jump. “You don’t have to explain to us why you need to wear one. We understand.”

“Mhm. Ran more than me, probably,” Sonoko added. “Did _not_ expect to end up the flattest in the—anyway, yeah, there’s a ladies’ room just through the doors to the mall here. You can change there.”

Still porting cheeks that could stop traffic, Ranma’s pigtail shot up. “Are ya-are ya both okay with me usin’ a women’s washroom?”

“I’m certainly more comfortable with the idea of you changing clothes in there than a men’s room when you look like that,” Ran said, feeling a weird sensation bubble in her chest.

She knew she was feeling defensive of Ranma, but couldn’t work out if it was the feeling of wanting to defend a petite girl friend who needed defending or... or something closer to how a boy would feel wanting to defend his girlfriend. Either way, the result of guiding Ranma to the next available stall to make sure the redhead didn’t do something dumb, like try sneaking into the men’s room while they weren’t looking, was the natural conclusion.

Ranma emerged a few moments later, dressed about the same, but with a bouncier step.

“Alright, are you all ready to hit Cat Street then?” Sonoko asked.

“Cat Street?” Ranma replied, paling a little.

“If the price tags scare you, don’t worry. I’m good at finding deals,” Sonoko said.

“No-no. I wasn’t thinkin’ about prices. But... I’ve got a bad history with cats. Can we go somewhere that doesn’t have any of ‘em?” Ranma asked, glancing between the two taller girls fearfully.

“There’s not really any actual cats to be seen. I think it’s based on the word ‘catwalk’?” Ran explained.

Ranma lit up in an instant. “Oh! That’s nice then. Let’s go!”

-b-

Nabiki felt a bit intimidated by the store Kid had taken her to. She liked nice stuff, but... a boutique as modern as this _without_ price tags? That was out of her normal range. Kid had insisted she could buy her a couple of nicer dresses here for modelling ‘borrowed’ goods, and she didn’t doubt it, but... she didn’t like not even knowing rough prices. She believed in budgeting.

Also, _he_. Kid was a he. He was just too good at disappearing into roles, it seemed.

“Eep!” Kid squeaked, quickly closing a rack of dresses. And making Nabiki second guess the claim he wasn’t actually a girl.

She was pretty sure no man over the age of twelve could reach _that_ pitch.

“What was it?” she asked, as the store attendant just gave a strained smile and ignored them.

“F-f-nothing,” Kid replied. “Ooh! Those dresses over there look nice!”

Nabiki watched him hurry off across the store before quickly flipping through the dresses he’d been looking at. There was nothing terrifying to her eyes. Nor were there any decorated with pictures of cats (which she felt silly for checking... there was no way Kid was secretly Ranma...). All that stuck out was one with an ugly picture of a fish.

Maybe it was offensive enough to Kid’s well honed sense of fashion to elicit that response?

-b-

Ran winced a little as they stepped in the first store that Sonoko had picked out. It was very... lolita. She was sure there was no way Ranma would handle anything Sonoko offered. Still, Ran could pick out an outfit while she was here. Some of the outfits looked good on her, even if she was a bit too tall for a lot of the lolita look.

She’d spent a bit of time poking about, feeling a little disappointed in the latest trends. A glance or two towards Ranma had revealed the small redhead looking fully overwhelmed, the same as she would expect from any guy in such a cutesy store. The usual look of wondering if the lace was sharp or... whatever it was that went through guys’ heads.

Ran was about to try the other side of the store, hoping for something longer, when Sonoko strolled up to Ranma with an outfit that wouldn’t look out of place on a more excessively dressed magical girl.

“I think this would be very you, Saotome,” Sonoko said, grinning away.

“Y-you do?” Ranma asked, swallowing nervously.

“Oh, _totally_. You’re short with a round face... and roundness in other areas, too. You’d look adorable. Wouldn’t she?” Sonoko said, turning to the clerk at the cash.

“I’d think so. She’d need to change her hair to totally get into the style, but she’s a good fit for the colourful lolita look,” the woman said. “You could definitely manage a louder dress like that, even if the trends are moving towards a more toned down look.”

“Uh... well, if ya both say so,” Ranma replied, quite pale, but taking the dress.

The clerk showed Ranma into the changing room as Ran stepped over to glare at Sonoko.

“This is down right mean.”

“It’s like going swimming. You jump in the deep end to start and then the rest isn’t as bad,” Sonoko replied with a grin.

“The rest? How much are you planning to dress Ranma up?” Ran whispered, not wanting to have the clerk overhear them, not knowing how news of Ranma’s condition might be handled.

“I wasn’t planning all that much, but that’s because you didn’t tell me how adorable Ranma is like this,” Sonoko countered, though she matched Ran’s hushed tones.

“You’re going to scare him off. I never should have agreed to this,” Ran muttered, crossing her arms.

“Hey, you wanted to know how girl he is when he’s transformed. I’m just poking at the boundaries,” Sonoko protested.

“No. You’re throwing him in the deep end. You said so yourself.”

Sonoko opened her mouth, but had no reply at first, so crossed her arms as well. “Lighten up. I’ll accept a ‘no’ if he gives me one.”

Ran glared at the curtain to the changing stall in silence as she tried to calm herself down. She could explain to Ranma she’d not known Sonoko would go _this_ far, right? But... she had been willing to think about sticking him in girl clothes. Just... she was thinking something sporty or casual. That was different, wasn’t it?

“So, uh, how do I look?” came Ranma’s nervous voice as the curtain opened.

Ran felt another wave of confusing feelings hit her. The redhead in front of her was adorable, though and through. Ranma totally rocked the dress, to a degree Ran had rarely seen anyone manage with that loud lolita look.

Yet, when Ranma looked at her, Ran knew she was looking at the same dark and deep blue eyes that belonged to the boy she had grown so interested in. That soft nervousness was still there. Perhaps a little more nervous than usual, but so very Ranma.

“You... you look great,” Sonoko said. “I mean, I knew you had the build, but... I didn’t think you’d actually listen to me.”

Ran nodded. “You do look very nice, Ranma. I—if it’s not weird to say, you look pretty.”

Ranma lit up at the compliment. “Thanks! I’ve never tried nothin’ half as frilly as this before, but I was thinkin’ it didn’t look that weird on this side of me when I looked in the mirror. But I also ain’t an expert on this stuff.”

-b-

They’d ended up visiting three more stores together, Sonoko talking Ranma into trying on more outfits than the other two had put on combined. That Ranma had actually seemed to like it continued to confuse Ran and thrill Sonoko.

What really confused Ran, though, was the way her heart was racing upon seeing Ranma dressed up like that. She supposed there was no denying that she still felt that same crush she felt for Ranma’s male side. Yet, there was something else in her heart. Her best guess was guilt, but she wasn’t really sure.

She supposed there was one question she could still ask... should still ask, really. Hurrying to catch up after spacing out a little, Ran was able to get back to the short redhead’s side fairly easily. The difference in stride length made that easy. Ranma also wasn’t moving all that quickly, taking in the striking and artistic architecture that lined Cat Street.

“Ranma-kun, I... I have to ask... do you like-um, do you like being a girl better?”

Ranma froze. Ran froze. Sonoko took a moment to notice the other two, but stopped and turned to watch them. Ranma’s eyes wouldn’t meet Ran’s, instead Ranma studied the pavement. Ranma’s mouth ran through some half formed words as the redhead grew more pale, but no proper response escaped those lips. Lips that Ran found her eyes drawn to for a moment.

“I won’t be upset with you if you do,” Ran said, feeling certain Ranma needed the reassurance.

She didn’t know what it would mean for her, but... if she had a crush on a girl, then she had a crush on a girl? It was the Reiwa Era. She didn’t need to be so flustered and old fashioned, right?

“Will you be upset if I say ‘no’, though?” Ranma asked, barely audible as the street remained lively with passing pedestrians.

“Pardon?” Ran replied.

Ranma’s eyes looked up at her, fear in their dark blue depths. “Will you think I’m a weirdo and a pervert if I say no? If I say that I like being a boy better? That I ain’t really sure if I’m properly either, and sometimes I need to escape being a guy for a while, but I know I can’t handle being a girl for more than a couple days either? Even though I tried?”

Ranma’s lips and shoulders quivered a little as the cursed teen’s eyes fell. “I tried, for Akane, when she said she liked girls, not guys. But it was worse than bein’ a guy full time is. I can’t do neither right...”

Ran stared down at Ranma for a moment, watching the redhead battle against tears. As the first sign of failure hit, a lone tear running down Ranma’s cheek, Ran pulled the short girl into a hug. She had no idea what the confession meant for her own feelings, and the guilt hadn’t quite vanished, but her sense of protectiveness was stronger.

She didn’t really know what to say, and hoped that her feelings were transmitted clearly enough through body language, as she tried to comfort Ranma. She knew she didn’t really understand the confession, but she could tell it was the truth and she was happy to accept it. Having someone open their heart to her something she couldn’t say no to.

“The best I’ve done so far is a sort of boyfriend,” Ran said, trying to smile and lighten the moment up a little as they stepped apart again. “So, having you be a sort of boyfriend and also a sort of girlfriend is probably about as much of a step into the unknown as having a full boyfriend?”

Ranma looked up at her with wide and reddened eyes. “You—you really... I mean, I’m a mess, but you still wanna... uh—wanna... date me?”

“I think so?” Ran said with her best gentle smile.

Ranma turned rather red. Ran was beginning to think that was Ranma’s response to a lot of things.

-b-

Nabiki picked away at her crepe, a simple strawberry and whipped cream thing, as she continued to wonder how Kid’s crepe fit so many toppings... caramel, chocolate sauce, a slice of cheesecake, a slice of brownie, a scoop of chocolate ice cream, strawberries, and more. How Kid was managing to maintain any level of dignity while eating that she couldn’t begin to guess, but the femininity of his current disguise seemed unquestionable.

“I would have gotten you one if you’d wanted one,” Kid said. “You didn’t have to get such a cheap crepe.”

“Oh, no, no. I’m not staring out of envy. Merely... fascination,” Nabiki replied, before lifting the two bags of clothes in her hand. “Besides, you’ve spoiled me plenty.”

She meant that, too. It would have taken her months to save up to buy clothes from brand names like these.

“A gentleman thief must be a gentleman first,” Kid replied with a mock authoritative tone.

Nabiki found a quick laugh escape her at that. “He says wearing a skirt and a wig.”

“I’m wearing a lot more than just that,” Kid replied with a grin and wiggling eyebrows that led Nabiki’s mind to places she was fairly certain most guys would not like it going.

She was about to tease back when she got the glimpse of firetruck red hair. Glancing over, she paled as she spotted Ranma walking with that Mouri girl. And her friend... Suzuki. The wallet.

Not wanting to get dragged into Ranma’s nonsense right now, she grabbed Kid’s hand and yanked the skirt wearing thief into an alleyway—well, more of a crevice. Land prices in Harajuku were rather too expensive to waste on genuine alleyways.

“Woah, what was that about?” Kid asked in a sharp whisper, revealing he understood the need to keep things quiet.

“I—I saw my fiance, alright? And I didn’t want to deal with his—his whole _deal_ right now,” Nabiki whispered back.

“You did?” Kid said, before leaning back to peak out of their hiding place. “Where? The only group heading our way is—is that Mouri Ran? And Suzuki So—”

“You know her?” Nabiki asked, slightly distracted from her concern about running into Ranma.

Kid turned back to her. “Yeah? She’s the little great detective’s guardian. Memorable temper. Also, she’s got a bust that’s downright inconvenient. I guess you’d get used to it, but... it made my one sleight of hand trick awkward... why are you staring at me like that?”

“Are you listening to yourself?” Nabiki asked.

“Yeah? I disguised as her the one time. I had to get the proportions right or else someone might notice,” Kid replied in a matter of fact tone.

“Oh. Right...” Nabiki said, taking a moment to accept that it made sense.

It was weird, but it made sense.

“Anyway,” Kid said, poking out from the crevice again. “Where’s your fiance? I just see those three girls... and dang, that redhead is _short_. She’d better not start showing up to heists. I don’t like having people around I can’t be. It makes Nakamori and the other detectives smug... anyway, where is he? I want to see the guy that’s almost cute enough to be worth the trouble.”

“I...” Nabiki found herself freezing up.

She really didn’t want to have to talk about Ranma right now. Not when the sort-of-date was going so well. He was such an embarrassing topic. And a weird one, to most.

“Do you believe in magic?” she asked, deciding that would be a way to ease into it.

“Do _I_ believe in magic?” Kid asked back.

“Yes. I mean real magic. Enchantments and curses and possessions and all that,” Nabiki said.

“Well, the gem I’m hunting for is said to be magical, so that had me ready to believe. Then a witch stabbed me in multiple places via a cursed wara ningyo because I was immune to her love magic, so... yeah. I’ve also seen her riding around on a broomstick and some other stuff, since she’s still in my life and still debating about murdering me for the crime of not being in love with her,” Kid replied with a somewhat unsettlingly nonchalant shrug.

Nabiki blinked a few times. “That’s... that’s quite the thing.”

“Definitely in the top five weirdest things that have ever happened to me,” Kid replied with distant eyes that left Nabiki curious.

Those questions could wait, though.

“I guess talking about Jusenkyo curses wouldn’t phase you, then,” Nabiki said.

“Probably not. What are they?” Kid asked.

-b-

Ran had decided that sweet treats were always a good way to wash away salty tears, so had brought Ranma to get some of Harajuku’s famous crepes. Seeing Ranma’s eyes light up told her it had been the right move.

“They’ve got a crepe with chocolate ice cream, cheese cake, brownies, chocolate sauce, and strawberries, _and_ caramel?” the short redhead said, eyes sparkling. “How do you fit so much good into one thing?”

“I’ve definitely wondered about the structural integrity of it myself,” Sonoko added.

“Oh... but it’s a girl working the counter. Darn,” Ranma muttered. “Guess I’m payin’ full price.”

Ran found herself a little lost in trying to follow how those things were related. “Pardon?”

“Well... guys are suckers, y’know? Lookin’ like you do, you’ve gotta have gotten some free stuff from ‘em sometimes, right?” Ranma asked. “I learned pretty quick after gettin’ this face that if ya play up being a ditz and bat your eyelashes a little it’s basically a sure thing you’ll save some money.”

Ran felt her cheeks grow hot with... well, jealousy. “I don’t think I like the idea of you doing that if we’re dating.”

Ranma paled. “S-sorry. I... back when I learned it I thought girls’d only want me as a boyfriend, so my girl side could do whatever. But—yeah. If I’m sorta your girlfriend too, then-yeah. No more flirtin’. Sorry.”


	6. Interviews

Ran walked with Ranma beside her. Sonoko had left them alone after they’d finished eating their crepes. The new couple had then wandered Harajuku quietly for a bit, Ran telling Ranma about anything that caught the shorter girl’s attention.

Then Ran had realised the time, and that she was supposed to pick up Conan now. Ranma had been happy to come along, declaring it a good chance to get in some roof hopping practice.

“There’s some pretty big buildings on the way,” Ran muttered nervously, after hopping up onto a house with Ranma.

“Eh, we can hop down and use the sidewalks when we get over there. Some of the streets here in downtown are way too wide to jump over anyhow,” Ranma replied with a grin.

“I... I guess,” Ran said, taking in a deep breath.

It was hard to say no to Ranma’s confidence, boy or girl.

Soon enough she was bounding along, feeling the wind in her hair, and beginning to question why they’d taken the subway here in the first place. This was just so much more fun. They were out of Harajuku and skipping across Aoyama in no time. They both agreed that hopping across the large cemetery that took up a good quarter of the Aoyama district would be disrespectful, so took a detour around it, but they went straight as a the metaphorical crow would fly after that point and were at the edge of Beika-ku only fifteen or so minutes later.

The pair decided to walk the last little stretch, the neighbours around Agasa’s home generally being the type that would complain about trespassing, as briefly as the pair would be on any one property.

Walking along, Ranma was clearly impressed by the riches of the mansions on display, which Ran couldn’t argue wasn’t impressive. It wasn’t quite on par with Sonoko’s family, but the neighbourhood was still filled with some of the most expensive houses in Tokyo.

They reached Agasa’s home shortly after, with Ran pointing out Shinichi’s home beside it. Ran rang the doorbell, and, a few moments later, Ai opened the door. Ran still wasn’t sure why the intense girl was living with Agasa when Conan couldn’t, but everyone got very jumpy when she asked so she’d stopped enquiring.

“Hello there, Haibara-chan, is Conan ready to come home?” Ran asked.

“The professor had an invention explode, and it sprayed Conan with some hydraulic fluids. He’s getting a bath right now, but should be down shortly,” Ai replied.

“Dang. Those are some big words from a tiny kid,” Ranma said, crouching down to be at eye level with the other girl. “You’re not a robot or somethin’, are ya?”

“Ranma!” Ran protested, even if she, on some level, had wondered herself. The little girl was so cold... she couldn’t dismiss the idea that Agasa had built himself a granddaughter.

Magic was apparently real, so why not androids? She’d heard there were rumours in Division 2 that Kid was one, after all.

“I just like to watch science documentaries,” Ai replied, before turning back into the house. “Was that the fridge? No snacking between meals!”

A distant ‘sorry’ could be heard before Professor Agasa came out, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “I was just trying to guess what the plans for dinner might be, that’s all.”

“A likely story,” the little redhead said, her arms crossed as she marched over to him. “Don’t make me make your diet stricter.”

“Yeesh, I think she might be scarier than Nabiki,” Ranma whispered.

Ran just nodded, before watching Ranma stroll over to the old man and young girl with a smile.

“If you wanna lose some of that belly fat what ya need is exercise. Cuttin’ down on food is always harder than burnin’ extra calories,” Ranma said.

“I’ve never really been the athletic type though,” Agasa protested, before giving the new redhead a double take. “Who are you, anyhow?”

“She came in with Mouri-san, so I’d guess she’s a classmate?” Ai offered.

“Ah, no. The name’s Saotome. Saotome Ran—”

“Ko!” Ran said, stepping forward. “Saotome Ranko. Ranma’s sister.”

“Uh-yeah? Yeah!” Ranma said.

Ai and the professor both looked somewhere between suspicious and confused, but did not press matters. They filled the time waiting for Conan with a little smalltalk. Ai vanished off down to the basement a short while later, while Agasa headed off to his workshop to putter a little not long after.

“Why did ya hide my name?” Ranma asked, once the pair were alone.

Ran felt herself blushing a little. “Professor Agasa is a scientist. I... I just don’t think telling him about curses would be the best idea, you know? He might want to run experiments or... something. You said yourself that the curse doesn’t like being tested.”

“Oh, yeah. That makes sense,” Ranma said, nodding.

“Keeping you away from him shouldn’t be too hard, so it won’t be any big bother to try to keep the names straight,” Ran explained.

“Keeping names straight?” Conan’s innocent voice asked from behind the two teenage girls.

Ran turned to him with a gentle smile. “Oh, it’s nothing. Don’t worry, Conan-kun.”

“Just talkin’ about girl stuff,” Ranma added with a grin. “You’re all good kid.”

Ran gave the other girl a confused look for a moment, before looking back at Conan and noticing the way he was staring at Ranma. She felt a smile grow on her face as a thought occurred to her. It seemed like Conan had a thing for redheads, going off how much more attention he gave Haibara than the other girls his age.

“Who, uh, who are you?” Conan asked, still staring at Ranma.

“Ranma’s sister,” Ranma said, grinning away. “Ran and I were just out shopping together. Suzuki-chan too.”

“I didn’t know Saotome-kun had a sister. Ran didn’t mention you?” Conan said, looking honestly confused.

“Gasp! You didn’t? I’m _offended_ , Mouri-chan,” Ranma said with full theatrics.

Ran found herself wondering if letting Agasa know the truth and try to run experiments would have been better than the look Ranma was giving her right now.

“It’s that I’m too beautiful for words, isn’t it?” Ranma asked, smirk growing more obnoxious.

“You’re really a dork when you have an audience, you know that?” Ran said, trying to hold down her blush.

Luckily Conan’s utterly perplexed face provided her a distraction as she found herself laughing. That just made the boy even more confused, to the point Ranma noticed and started laughing as well.

“A-heh-anyhow, Conan-kun, you have a bit of homework left to work on. So let’s lead Ra-Saotome-chan back to a subway station and then go home, eh?” she offered, getting her laughter under control.

“S-sure?” Conan replied, still perplexed.

The small boy stayed quiet for the rest of the walk. Ran decided to brush her hand against Ranma’s a few times as they walked, testing the waters a little. For all Ranma’s flirtatious and cocky words at Agasa’s, the short girl was actually a blushing mess whenever Ran offered even the slightest initiative.

Conan gave the pair space, though, especially as Ran knew some very ‘girly’ conversation topics that caused him to hurry up out of listening range when he seemed ready to eavesdrop. She didn’t mind Conan hearing, in theory, but she knew anything he heard would reach Shinichi soon enough (possibly instantly, though she still had no proof of that) and didn’t really want Shinichi to know too much about what she said to Ranma.

Not that they said too much as they walked to the nearest subway station. They didn’t really know what to say, and just seeing Ranma smile was worth a thousand words in Ran’s mind. Still, reaching the station, they had to say something.

“I didn’t expect today to turn out how it did,” Ran said, as they stood just outside the station entrance. “I’m happy it did, though.”

Ranma nodded. “Thanks. I really mean that.”

Ran wanted to say more. Something more romantic. But she couldn’t shake a nervousness about how passersby might respond to her saying that to another girl. Nor could she escape still feeling a bit frazzled about it all herself.

She felt surprised when Ranma wrapped a hug around her, which she gladly returned to the shorter girl.

“Well, uh, bye,” Ranma said, breaking off the hug and hurrying down the stairs with a wave.

Ranma’s cheeks were stop sign red, and Ran suspected hers were similarly flush.

-b-

Ran was working on dinner, as Conan sat at the table, reading some murder mystery or another that she’d never let a normal seven year old read, when her phone vibrated.

She pulled it out with a cheerful ‘hello?’.

“Hey there, Ran,” a soft and boyish voice said.

Ran found her eyes drifting over to Conan, whose hands were busy with his book. “Ranma?”

“Yeah? I was phoning to make sure you’d still like this voice and side of me. Wasn’t expecting you to not recognise it,” he said, sounding sarcastic.

“It’s hard to tell it’s you over the phone. Especially with your old phone,” Ran replied.

“I think I’ve got a very distinctive voice,” Ranma protested.

“I can think of someone else you sound a lot like... two people, actually, now that I’m really thinking. I... that second match might require some investigating,” she said, growing a little lost in thought.

Kid _had_ really picked up his heists around the time Shinichi had vanished. And Conan got rather excited about Kid heists, unlike anything else that wasn’t murder or murder adjacent.

“Anyone I need to be jealous about?” Ranma asked.

“No, no. You’ve won, don’t worry,” Ran said.

“So... I’m your boyfriend?” Ranma asked.

“Yes. You’re my boyfriend, as much as you can be,” Ran replied.

She noticed Conan freeze and turn to her with a look of horror and betrayal. “I’m in the middle of cooking dinner, though. Maybe I can call you back after I eat?”

“Oh, yeah. Don’t want to cause ya to waste any food. I, well, uh... l-l-lo- _je t’adore_ !” Ranma said, blurting the last part in what Ran was sure wasn’t heavily accented French. It still felt romantic to her, though.

“And I love you too,” Ran replied. “Bye.”

“Bye,” Ranma said.

Ran hung up and turned to Conan, who was still looking traumatized. She just gave him a smile. She cooked his meals, so he’d better accept her ability to choose someone other than ‘Shinichi-nii-chan’ if she wanted to.

-b-

Nabiki felt a bit worried as she sat there watching a show on her laptop. Kid’s response to talk about Jusenkyo had been roughly impossible to read, and she hated not knowing what someone thought. Especially about news as weird as curses. He’d made it seem like he was fine with that sort of insanity, but he’d gotten quiet when she’d talked about all the different curses that existed.

The K-drama was not keeping her distracted enough, and she was about to try to find something a bit more brain usage heavy when there was a knock at her door.

Curious, she got up and opened it a sliver, finding an excited looking Ranma.

“Can I come in?” he whispered.

“Uh... I guess? 25 yen to sit on my bed, though,” she said as she opened the door.

Ranma nodded and proceeded to sit in the middle of the floor, apparently taking her joking charge seriously. He didn’t sit _still_ , however, wiggling back and forth with an energy she’d not seen on him in some time.

“So, what has you wanting to talk to me, of all people?” Nabiki asked as she flopped to lounge on her bed.

“Ran! Mouri-chan and I—we’re—she and I—oh gosh, it’s, just... all of me!” Ranma rambled.

“All of you?” Nabiki asked, thinking she knew what he was trying to say, but not wanting to make any leaps.

“She likes all of me! And... she’s so tall when I’m a girl,” Ranma said with a blush. “It’s just... so nice.”

“Ah. I mean, I’m happy for you, but... why am I the first one you’ve come to with this?” Nabiki asked.

Ranma blinked, staring at her with honest confusion. “Well, we’re engaged and everything. So it seemed like you were the first one I should tell.”

“Right... Right.”

“Did you forget?” Ranma asked.

“I—I’ve got something else on my mind, and we’re _barely_ engage anyhow,” Nabiki countered, feeling defensive.

“Are you blushing? I didn’t know you _could_ blush,” Ranma replied, leaning forward.

She shot upright on her bed, keeping herself away from his inquiring eyes. “Well, I... I may have possibly found an interesting boy.”

Ranma lit up, hopping to his feet and grabbing Nabiki’s hands. “That’s great! If we’ve both got somebody then I bet our dads’d give up then!”

“Why do you bet that?” Nabiki asked. She was also curious how much he’d bet, but knew from experience that Ranma had absurd luck and was a bad idea to bet against.

“Your dad’s kinda spineless when it comes to you and your sisters and there’s no way ma wouldn’t want Ran as a daughter-in-law. She’s super feminine, but also fierce underneath. Pops’d cave if both of ‘em support us,” Ranma said, his confidence almost infectious.

“Things are still... awkward with the object of my interest,” Nabiki replied.

“Oh,” Ranma said, deflating significantly. “W-well, I... if anyone I know can get what she wants, it’s you. You’ll win him over in no time. I’m sure of it!”

“You know... you’re right. I can. He might be hard to get a hold of, but I’ve got charms, and I know how to use them,” Nabiki said with a nod. “I... I’m not used to you giving me a pep talk, though.”

Ranma shrugged. “You’re like family to me. Even if ya drive me nuts sometimes, I do wanna see you happy. And I benefit from ya winning for once.”

-b-

Ran had finished brushing her teeth and was getting changed into her pajamas when her phone chirped. She wondered for a second if Ranma was calling back again, and felt her heart flutter. Their conversation had been sweet nothing, but it had been sweet all the same.

It was Shinichi.

“Hello?” she answered, not sure what she was feeling.

“It’s Saotome, isn’t it, Ran?” Shinichi’s voice asked. “Your new... your new boyfriend?”

He said the last part like the words burnt him.

“Yes,” Ran replied.

She didn’t want to have to drag this out any more than necessary. She was sure she’d cry if it lasted much longer.

“Why?” he asked, his voice so soft.

“He’s sweet and caring and we both love martial arts. It doesn’t hurt that he’s cute,” Ran said, her mind picturing both of Ranma’s smiling forms as she said that last bit. “And... I see a lot of people die, Shinichi. It... it really makes you feel alone.”

“You could call me?” Shinichi replied sharply.

“I did. You have to have seen how many missed messages you get from me? I... your my friend, but you’re busy. And I was starting to resent you for having other priorities,” Ran explained. “I didn’t like the thoughts I was having about you because of it, and... having someone else I can turn to is probably the best thing that’s happened to our friendship since you left on your case.”

“But—”

“I’ll still talk to you. You’re one of my oldest friends,” Ran said, really struggling to hold back the tears now. “I have school tomorrow. I need to get to bed. Let’s talk another time, Shinichi.”

“Ran—”

“Bye,” she said.

“...bye,” he muttered.

She ended up crying herself to sleep. She’d hoped it would take him a little longer to call.

-b-

Ran’s next lesson with Ranma was interesting. She’d talked to him as a boy on the phone, but seeing him as one again... his hands were so much larger and stronger now. His face was so similar, yet so handsome.

He was still shy, but in different ways. She managed to work up the guts to give Ranma a kiss on the cheek before she left, though.

-b-

Ran’s phone vibrated as she worked on her math homework. Checking, she had a text from Kazuha.

<Mom wants ta see a travelling exhibit in Tokyo. Somethin’ about ancient Egypt. You’s free this weekend?>

<I am, yes.> Ran typed back.

The reply came quickly. <Nice! And, can ya bring the boyfriend? You’s told me so much about him. I wants to meet him.>

<Sure.> Ran replied, ignoring the way it made her nervous.

She was fine with both of Ranma’s sides. Sonoko was also quite fine with it. The only result there being some light teasing about whether any other girls caught Ran’s eye.

But showing the magic to other people felt so intimidating to her.

<Nice! See ya’s there then, Ran-chan!>

-b-

<Apparently Heiji wants to come too.>

<I’m sure he’ll like Hattori-kun.>

<I’m nots sure Heiji’ll likes him.>

-b-

Ranma stood beside Ran in Tokyo Station, waiting on Kazuha and Heiji. Ranma was wearing an interesting orange collared t-shirt with a red bowtie that looked adorable in Ran’s opinion. She was starting to see his girl side in his boy side just as much as the reverse now, and it was really helping to fix the odd feelings of guilt that she’d been struggling with. There was no denying both parts were _him_. Or, well, sometimes she was thinking ‘her’ for Ranma, but... Ranma was Ranma. That much she knew.

“Ran-chan!” Kazuha’s voice called out.

“Kazuha-chan!” Ran replied.

“Mouri-han, goods ta see ya,” Heiji said as he and Kazuha reached earshot. “And this must bes Saotome-han?”

“Yo,” Ranma replied with a friendly wave.

Heiji gave Ranma a head to toe examination, judgment in his eyes the whole time, while Kasuha rolled her eyes.

“He’s just upset ‘cause he’s friends with Kudo,” Kazuha explained, smacking Heiji on the upper arm. “Be nicer, ya dolt!”

“Kudo is a good guy, whether he’s a pal or not,” Heiji protested. “I wanna makes sure Ran-han’s not gettin’ stuck with a major downgrade.”

“How am I doin’ so far?” Ranma asked, seeming more amused than anything to Ran’s relief.

Heiji’s cheeks reddened a little. “I’ll admits that yer abouts as good lookin’ as he is. Ya’ve got better eyebrows... Looks ain’t everythin’ though, got it?”

“Sure, sure,” Ranma replied. “That’s why I’m plannin’ to take ya both out to the best okonomiyaki in Tokyo. And I’ll pay.”

“You think _Tokyoite_ okonomiyaki is gonna wins me over?” Heiji asked, sounding insulted.

“I never said the cook was from Tokyo. She’s just livin’ here right now,” Ranma replied.

Heiji raised an eyebrow slightly, but did not un-narrow his eyes. “Alright, I ain’ts as upset by the offer now, but I’m still skeptical.”

“Well, _I’m_ happy with the offer a’ free food, myself. B’y’s makin’ a good first impression in my books,” Kazuha said, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

Ran appreciated that.

-b-

Heiji had remained similarly cold for the train ride out to Nerima. Kazuha and Ran had done their best to ignore his glares at Ranma. Ranma had made somewhat less effort to ignore him, but had still been happy to talk martial arts with the two girls.

When Ran had finally gotten Heiji to join the subject and discuss his recent kendo tournament she’d suddenly found Ranma glaring.

“What did ya mutter about Kudo?” Heiji asked, as they headed up from the subway station.

“I didn’t say nothin’ about Kudo. I was talkin’ about an idiot kendoist I know named _Kuno_ ,” Ranma replied. “An’ how every kendoka I’ve met is at least a bit of a flirty wanna be samurai.”

“Flirty wanna—okay, I’ll admit I know a couple a’ guys like that. Okita is probably the worst... but we ain’ts all like that. At least not in Osaka. Maybe the Tokyoites is just weirdos,” Heiji countered.

“Maybe,” Ranma replied, sounding only half convinced.

Ran was feeling more than a little frustrated when Ranma stopped walking. Looking up, she realised they’d reached the Ucchan’s restaurant he was taking them too. She also realised there was a delicious smell wafting through the door.

“Ranma-kun!” a tall and beautiful girl about their age (maybe a year older) said, rushing over to the group. “Oh, and you’ve brought a whole group!”

“Hey Konatsu,” Ranma replied. “Yeah, I’ve brought my new girlfriend and some of her friends.”

“Oh! How exci—” the tall girl said, before being cut off by the appearance of a brunette with hair a bit longer than Ran’s and a touch less chaotic.

“The girlfriend?” the new girl said, a Kansai accent hinted at in her speech, though far softer than Kazuha or Heiji’s. “Hm, I give up. Which one of you two girls is Ran-chan’s new girlfriend?”

Ran stared at the other girl in confusion for a second before her eyes were drawn first to the rather incandescent shade of red Kazuha’s cheeks were turning, and then to how pale Ranma had gone, to the point he seemed almost devoid of colour.

“U-Ucchan! Ya-ya can’t use that nickname anymore!” Ranma blurted, switching from colourless to bright red in record time.

“What? If your new girlfriend has a problem with your oldest friend callin’ you Ran-chan then she and I are gonna—”

Ran found herself being pulled forward, in front of Ranma in a rather jerky motion as the other girl talked.

“Ucchan! Meet my new girlfriend: Mouiri _Ran_ ,” Ranma said.

‘Ucchan’ blinked twice. “Oh.”

“Y-yeah,” Ranma said.

A mischievous smile spread across the other girl’s face. “Ah, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Ran-kun. The name’s Kuonji Ukyo. I do hope it won’t bother you, but, as his oldest friend, I would very much like to annoy dear Ran-chan for bein’ an idiot and not telling me to cover up his nickname.”

“Ucchan!” Ranma protested once again.

“If ya asked me beforehand I would have been fine with dropping the nickname. But you didn’t, and now she knows. And now I’m never going to let you live this down. Ran-chan,” Ukyo said, grinning away.

As Ran tried to process the confusion this was leaving her with a look of realisation dawned on Kazuha’s face.

“Oh! Ran-chan’s boyfriend Ranma is bein’ called Ran-chan! That... yeah. That makes more sense,” she said, growing less flush as well. “Because _obviously_ Ran-chan Ran-chan wouldn’t have a girlfriend.”

“I don’t know if I likes you yet, Saotome-han, but I’m likin’ your friend,” Heiji said, laughing a bit.

“Wait,” Konatsu said, making everyone jump as they’d somehow forgotten she was standing right in front of them. “If Mouri-san is dating Ranma, then _doesn’t_ she have a girlfriend? At least a little?”

“What?” Kazuha and Heiji asked in unison.

Ranma let out a sigh. “Ucchan, I’m gonna need some glasses of water... and okonomiyaki. I ain’t explain this on an empty stomach.”

-b-

The explanation had gone over rather well. Kazuha and Heiji had both ended up surprisingly red after Ranma had displayed his curse. Then he’d gotten talking about how he’d gotten the curse. Followed by talk about how chaotic his life had been since, which then doubled back to include talk about how he and Ukyo had met as kids. This led to talk about Ranma’s previous engagements, leaving Ran feeling a bit of paranoia about Ukyo, since she was both Ranma’s former fiancée _and_ childhood friend. While she knew, from painful experience, that childhood friends didn’t always work out, they seemed to so often in the lives around her...

Those feelings have (mostly) vanished when Ukyo had begun flirting with her waitress Konatsu.

Then everything had gotten sidetracked when Ran finally realised they hadn’t actually introduced Heiji and Kazuha properly and it turned out that Ukyo was actually a major fan of Heiji’s murder solving adventures. She got talking about liking his down to earth Osakan charm more than the snooty Detective of the East and his cocky face, which Heiji had drunk up. Though Ranma had gotten defensive, having apparently finally looked up what Shinichi looked like and pointing out that they looked alike.

Ran found herself giggling at the fact that Ranma was now defending Shinichi while Heiji was doing the trash talking.

Things were calm after that. Everyone was getting along so very well. Ran felt a little nervous about the questions the waitress girl started asking Heiji about the traceability of certain poisons, but figured that Konatsu was probably just a bit of a murder mystery fan.

It was nearly evening, and nearly dinner time, when the quartet finally left Ucchan’s. Everyone agreed that okonomiyaki was nice, but they didn’t feel like eating it two meals in a row.

It was lightly drizzling out, but Kazuha and Ran had both brought umbrellas while Ranma and Heiji insisted they could handle a little rain. Which, of course, led to Ranma projecting masculine bravado while an adorable petite young woman.

And blushes on the cheeks of the other three.

“I’ll admits, Kudo was wrong about ya,” Heiji said as they walked back towards the nearest metro station. “Yer a fun guy. Or girl, I guess.”

“I figured ya’d come around,” Ranma said with a cocky grin on an adorable face. “Everybody likes me in the end.”

“RANMA!” a voice bellowed.

“Well, everybody with taste,” Ranma muttered before turning to the longhaired and bespectacled lad who’d shouted at them. “What’s up now, Duck Face?”

“I still haven’t gotten revenge for you turning Shampoo gay!” the lad shouted, attempting to seem intimidating despite his coke bottle glasses and bright yellow rain poncho.

“We’ve been over this, Mu Sui! You _can’t_ turn someone gay! You can help them realise they were beforehand, but you can’t make ‘em something they—put those knives away!” Ranma shouted, the last part annoyed rather than showing any fear and the various blades now sticking out of the other guy’s sleeves. “There’s bystanders here you jerk!”

Before Ran could blink, Ranma had shot off at the lanky lad, slamming into his midsection with a jab she was pretty sure would completely shatter through concrete. The tall lad merely stumbled back, though. With her recent training, Ran could tell he’d done something to move his chi to shield from the blow. She hadn’t learned too much about how all that worked, but she found herself watching in awe as Ranma and Mu Sui battled, Ranma managing to move the fight to a nearby farm field (how Nerima still had those scattered about Ran would never understand).

“Maybe I should go,” Heiji muttered as the Mu Sui guy began tossing knives about and shouting ‘prepare to die’.

“Why?” Ran asked.

“Well, the guy looks ready to commits murder, and you knows _my_ luck with corpses. I’m as bad as Kudo for findin’ them,” Heiji replied. “Ranma said he’s a water magnet. Pretty sure I’m somehow a corpse magnet.”

Ran was about to dismiss that as nonsense when the corner of her eye noticed something moving up above. Looking up, she realised that something was disturbingly person shaped.

The person shaped object kept falling, towards a rather distracted Mu Sui, who had been laughing maniacally until the thing (that Ran still wanted to pretend was _not_ a dead body) hit him with a thump.

Heiji rushed forward, pulling the (there was no denying it now) corpse off of the confused and slightly traumatized tall lad.

“He was dead before he hit the ground,” Heiji said as Ran and Kazuha caught back up.

“He didn’t hit the ground! He hit me!” Mu Sui protested as he got up.

Heiji ignored him and looked up, Ran and Kazuha following him as they spotted one plane overhead, only visible now as the clouds were beginning to clear.

“Do ya think the MPD could gets air traffic control to track that plane for us?” Heiji asked as he pulled out his phone.

“I hope so?” Ran offered.

“Can we address the fact that a dead body just landed on me!?” Mu Sui shouted.

“For someone who tries to murder me at least once a week you don’t seem to be handling a corpse very well, duck boy,” Ranma said, though the redhead was conspicuously staying on the other end of the field.

“I—that’s different!” Mu Sui protested.

-b-

Ran was pretty sure that Takagi and Megure were joking when they said they appreciated Heiji’s help with this murder but hoped he didn’t plan to visit Tokyo again any time soon.

Well, half sure.

-b-

Nabiki wandered one of Nerima’s many shopping streets, just wanting to stay away from home and the fathers’ latest scheme to try to get her and Ranma to marry. Why they couldn’t accept neither she nor Ranma would agree to it, which was a legal necessity, she didn’t know. If Genma thought he could blackmail _her_ , though, then she was going to make an absolute fool of him.

Thoughts about selling him to a zoo were interrupted when a police car pulled up to a screeching halt in front of her. She back up a step, ready to go around behind it, when the door popped open.

“Tendo Nabiki?” a gruff masculine voice asked from within.

“Yes?”

“Get in,” the man replied.

“Pardon?” she asked.

“GET IN!” the man shouted. “Now!”

While Nabiki was generally one to be stubborn, she also knew better than to antagonize law enforcement _too_ much. So she got in.

“Close the door,” the man said.

Now that she could see him properly she could tell he was someone important. He was wearing a suit, with an air of authority about him. His chunky moustache and buzz cut hair gave him an almost military look. She had an odd feeling like she recognised him.

She closed the door.

“Drive,” he ordered up to the officers in the front.

She was seated behind the driver, so couldn’t see him very well, but could tell the other officer in the passenger’s seat looked to be pushing towards retirement age. She found that odd. It was less intimidating than she’d expect.

“What do you know about Kaitou Kid?” the gruff commanding inspector asked.

“More than I know about you, I suppose, but that’s not saying much,” she replied.

He narrowed his eyes and pulled out a badge. His name was Nakamori Ginzo, an inspector in Division 2.

No wonder he looked familiar. She believed in knowing your enemy and had been sure she’d go up against Division 2 at some point in her life, even before meeting Kid.

“I suppose that makes my knowledge of you and Kid about even now,” Nabiki replied.

“Oh really?” Nakamori said.

Nabiki glanced towards the windows, noticing they were moving towards a highway.

“What do you expect? I’m just an innocent high school girl,” Nabiki replied.

Nakamori narrowed his eyes, holding a hand ahead of him and giving a grunt. The officer in the passenger seat passed him a file folder. Nakamori pulled out a photograph.

“While pursuing Kid after a heist one of our officers followed him to your residence,” Nakamori said, showing Nabiki a photo of Kid climbing into her bedroom window. “We observed the residence and determined that this is your bedroom. So: explain.”

“He’s a world famous thief. Breaking and entry is his thing,” Nabiki replied, looking the photo over and trying her best to feign surprise and ignorance. “I’m not sure why he’d choose my home. Perhaps he thought that, as my father is a member of the ward council, the police would be less likely to charge into our home without any sort of warrant. Buying him some time to catch his breath?”

“Do you really think a weak defense like that will stand up to further investigation?” Nakamori bellowed.

Nabiki just grinned back at him. “It will stand up better than a doctored photograph like this. If you’re going to try to scare someone as fond of photography as I am, then _do_ make sure to better hide the artifacts of your copying and pasting. The shadows on his cape are wrong, and you can see that his blurriness doesn’t quite match the background when you get close.”

Nakamori looked about ready to explode. “That-it-it’s a reconstruction of what our officer saw, but his word is still grounds for a warrant!”

“Then why are you threatening me, a teenager, with faked evidence?” Nabiki asked.

“That-we’re trying to be subtle!” Nakamori shouted.

“I told you she was good,” the driver said.

Nabiki froze, before slowly turning forward. She knew that voice and, especially, that smooth tone.

“Wait, that’s—?” she asked.

The driver peaked back for a moment, revealing it was indeed him. Kid. His little smile was all she saw before his attention went back to the road. “I told you my allies were nervous, so I talked them into doing a little test to try to scare you.”

Nabiki didn’t know what to say.

“This is Jii, my assistant,” Kid gestured, though he didn’t take his eyes off the road. His hand then pointed back towards Nakamori. “And your conversation partner is the wonderful woman who taught me pretty well everything I know about disguises: my mother.”

“Your... mother?” Nabiki asked, turning to what looked like a large and imposing man.

“I’m kind of glad you called the bluff so fast, even if it’s a bit embarrassing. Ginzo’s voice always kills my throat,” Kid’s mother said, now in a completely feminine voice that did not match her current appearance. “He shouts too much.”

“Nabiki wouldn’t have known if you toned that down a bit,” Kid replied.

“ _We’d_ have known, though. A professional does a proper job, regardless of audience,” Kid’s mother countered.

“Fair. Fair.” Kid replied.

Nabiki just blinked again. “So... I didn’t call it _too_ fast, did I? I still pass, right?”

“With flying colours, dear,” Kid’s mother said.

“Can I see your real faces then?” Nabiki asked, turning between Kid and his mother.

“Unfortunately we didn’t have a fake cop car ready, so, uh... we kind of have to keep up the disguises until we’ve returned this one,” Kid explained.

“Mhm. Ginzo’s jawline is a headache to get right,” Kid’s mother added.

“How about this weekend, though? Hey ‘Biki-chan? I’ll drop by your place on Sunday?” Kid asked.

“Sure. I can wait until Sunday,” Nabiki replied.

She was going to drag him straight into negotiating her way out of the engagement as revenge for this little scare. He deserved to be dropped in the deep end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi’s reason for being distracted by ‘Ranko’ isn’t about liking redheads. It’s about liking athletic girls.


End file.
